Finance For Motorways Roads Board Problem

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29239, 24 June 1960, Page 7

Finance For Motorways Roads Board Problem

(Nn> Zealand Pres* Association) WELLINGTON, June 23. The National Roads Board airreed todav higher petrol tax or borrowing would be needed to finance future motorways.

it had been told that £4.5 million would be required to compensate landowners whose property is invoh ed in Auckland urban motorway schemes, (th ® Minister of Works, Mr Watt) to talk with the Government in an attempt to work out ways of financing land compensation in motorway projects.

The Director of Roading (Mr p C. Laing) warned the board that ach.wws for other cities woU ld definitely be coming up in a few years. Christchurch and punedin would need new outlets, and there would be the same compensation problem there. *Mr Watt: No other part of New Zealand has traffic problems to the extent of Auckland, though. Mr N. A. Rattray (South Island Counties) said the revelation of the compensation money required had “shaken everyone.” “We will be in all sorts of difficulties if we try to finance this out of revenue, especially when the same thing starts to happen in other parts of New Zealand,” be said.

The board should seek a change in its act, to permit borrowing iar the acquisition of land for urban motorways. Without borrowing, the high cost of compensation must stultify the board's work in other parts of the country, he said. Mr Watt said he believed that the present £ 1.250.000 a year being spent on the Auckland motorway scheme should be increased to £25 million a year. “We are just getting geared to start on the Ellerslie-Green Lane section of the motorway, and other sections will follow,” he said.

Other members of the board agreed that at least £500.000 more would be needed in Auckland each year for the motorway scheme, and that this sum would have to be taken out of the roading money at present provided for the rest of New Zealand if the board did not borrow or find new revenue. The board was told that compensation for land in the Auckland motorway scheme was estimated to total more than a quarter of the cost of the scheme.

Mr N. B. Hunt (North Island Counties) agreed “the board simply will not be able to carry out its work if it has to face such high sums as this" without a new source of income. The board was told that the £45 million for compensation in the Auckland area had to be found during the next five years. Mr A. G. Harris (municipalities) said that the old Main Highways

Board had got into difficulties through excessive borrowing. In his opinion, the higher petrol tax was the only satisfactory source for the needed income. Mr Laing said that, when so much loan money was needed by °._ her J bodies - the Roads Board should keep off the market. It had a fair and proper source of income without borrowing. “New Zealanders simply must decide whether they are prepared to pay for the roads they seem to want,” he said.

The motor unions had decided they did not want higher tax for roading. The municipalities seemed inclined to think that more money was needed, and might favour a Mgher tax. The counties were convinced that it was needed. * must seek the opinion of the people. It is hard to ask the Government to form an opinion when the verdict of the rest of New Zealand is not known,” said Mr Laing.

Mr Watt pointed out that in buying land for roading, it was necessary to obtain whole blocks part of which might later be sold again by the board.

The board’s secretary (Mr C. N. Johnson) said borrowing could double the cost of a project at 5 per cent, interest rates. The board’s present programme is for the completion of the motorway to Newmarket in four years, and into Grafton Valley in 10 years.