MAIN HIGHWAYS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18916, 3 February 1927, Page 13

MAIN HIGHWAYS.

♦ SCHEME FOR IMPROVEMENT. Approval of tho scheme for the improvement of main highways, as suggested by Mr A. F. Wright in ati articlo which recently appeared in Tue Pkkss was given by Mr A. F. Drayton at yesterday's meeting which was called to deal with tho unemployment question. Mr Drayton said that tho article iiiuht liavo impressed all who read it. Hie cost of maiutcnanco of Canterbury roads was alarming, and no business man could look on quietly and seo maintenance costs paid annually that would construct a permanent road in fiyo years. Moreover the City was directly interested in providing business with access to and egress from points within a few hours' journey. Certain highways were subsidised fifty-fifty, and the balance of the. money could bo raised by securing tho rates over a period equivalent to tho capitalised maintenance of six or seven years. tliU3 saving the cost of loan. The construction of most of these important arteries must be of a more or less permanent naturo because of the character of the traffic to pass over them and its weight and speed. Better valu» in oonutruction could not bo obtained anywhere else in the world than in Canterbury, because Nature had provided all tho material deposited over tho Plains in the shape of sand and gravel. A scheme of finance over a term of say five or six years to provide fftnds for tho necessary 50 per cent, of tho comtics' subsidised roads presented no difficulties and would allow of imtncdiate construction. Hie maintenance capitalised for five or six years would more than meet the case. The same method of finance was available for certain communicating arteries in and out of the City, which could be put in hand at once, such as Avonside to the Kstuary along Ihe Canal Reserve to relievo the Ferry road. Under this head the C A.A. might co-operate and contribute through its members £2 per car towards a main highway. This would with the Government subsidy be £( per car. Tho fund so provided could be spent where the committee of the C.A.A. decided. He suggested that the City Engineer, borough and county clerks might meet and a short address bo given them pointing out the importance of finding an avenue for the labour and the necessity of employing it on useful work, of which thev were in need but which, for want of co-ordination and finance, thev were shirking.