ROADS BOARD FINANCE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27614, 22 March 1955, Page 7

ROADS BOARD FINANCE

DISTRICT COUNCILS’ REQUIREMENTS

COMMENT ON STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN A comment on a statement by the chairman of the National Roads Board (Mr W. F. Young) published in “The Press" last Saturday has been made by Mr R. C- Neville, commercial users’ representative on Numbers 13 and 14 District Roads Councils. Mr Young said: “This year we are meeting all the requirements of the district roads councils tor the first time.” He was speaking in Wellington on the record amount of nearly £13,982,000 set aside by the board for State and main highway construction and maintenance in the 1955-56 financial year. In a statement yesterday, Mr Neville said: "It would be unwise to accept Mr Young’s statement on its face value as, when considering its estimates for the coining year, each District Roads Council had been instructed to keep ts requirements down to a figure predetermined by the National Roads Board. "This had necessitated, in the case of number 13 District Council for example, reducing considerably the grants applied for by the Kaikoura and Waipara County Councils for main highway, and the Ministry of Works for State -highway work. “The National Roads Board’s allocated amount having been thus complied with, application was made by the Distric Roads Council for the approval of its estimates and this apparently has been given without further qualification. “It would be most unfair,- however, to assume that the full amount asked for by local authorities has been granted, or that it represented the year,” Mr Neville said.