THE HUTT ROAD

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2555, 1 September 1915, Page 6

THE HUTT ROAD

A BILL SEEKING FINALITY Y LOCAL BODIES' OBJECTIONS The Hon. W. H. HERRIES (Minis- ' tor. .or Railways) moved the second reading of tho Hutt Road Bill (No; 2).--- ; The, Bill, he hoped, would be the.means : of reaching finality on the Ilutt Road .. question. The road; had been, lianded ' over to the Wellington City Council for maintenance, and the' question cams' before the Government whether .tlio council had sufficient power ;to .collect" the money from the contributory bodies - ' for maintenance. 'l'lio Government : thought.;that they luul,. but tie City :' Council, through their solicitors, formeii " the opinion that they did not have sufficient if aiiy body, proved recalcitrant. The Government proposed to' ■ remit out of £100,000 which the road had cost, 1 the sum .'of £40,000," which'.. : would bo borne by the Dominion at large. ,::That- .was a generous contribu- "■ tion to the local bodies. Tho schedule'of the, Bill proposed, to, ask those • '' bodiesfor £60,000.; The first part of . the. Bill provided tie machinery : for , getting that money. The Bill put the ... rato of interest down at 4 per' oent., »; ;bu.t lie understood.the City,(Council ob- . . jected;.. to . this,. although the ■'original /Bill provided for '8| per cent. The road ' ■ would -be rested in 'the; City Council, "■ ' with; representation for the Contribu- 1 . tory .bodies.. The actual . work would ■ • bo done by the City Council, and theirBill' presented: year by year to the . ■ controlling board.' The chief trouble! ; was the. allotment tcTtho localj. bodies of their share of the cost; That had been done 'some years ago, and be was , bound-by previous legislation, to accept : that as final;; It had been laid down by: . Commissioner Short. The.Petone trough objected to pay anything, but he thought ;,t1i0: House/would: agree thai. . the Goyennnent'had, acted ger erdusly; • in only'asking for £60,000 ,instead of the: £100,000 they were entitled to. . Mr. IV M. WILFOB-D admitted that, the local, bodies, would benefit'to the ex-i '. tent, of " £40,000, but it. had; been-be- " ! lieved in 1E)03 that the total 'cost to-tie , local'bodies would be^£2s,ooo. It was 1 thought that. £100,000 would, be tlia !; whole cost for tlie_ railway ! and tha : ' road,, but through'difficulties the sum . ' had gone up to nearly £300,000. When ' tho road had been constructed a largo , - ; portion of land had been taken for spoil i for ihe purpose of constructing the rail- , , . way, ; and the local bodies complained ' ■ i that . they had. not \been given credit;,' - ■ ' for that. He proceeded to outline-ltha'., t case for tho borough councils, "and odd"r, ed't-hat he felt that in every sense tho roiid was a national road, and he Has I looking forward to the time that these'roads would bo kept by the Govern- ■ | mnt. ' Since' tho Trentluim camp had: . been started the Hutt and Tetono roads. ,> had been cut up to the extent of thousands of, pounds, and- he .thought that t'boy.had a good clain; to a portion of; the money voted for Defence, purposes '• 1 for' repairing these roads.; They were' . entitled to comnensation, but he sa.ir little possibility of giving-them help. It. could be given them by reducing the f £60,000 t0.£40,000. The money for the road had all been paid, and as the local bodies were willing'to pay; £40,000, ha ■ ; thought the' sum might' be reduced: to that amount. He', knew, that I'etone was hot recalcitrant, but tie borough could not pay the amount levied oil them. / y r i : - ■ Never Estimated at £100,000 . t SIR JOSEPH WiVllD (Minister of Fi- ~ nance) said .that lie wanted to clear up any false, impression which, might have . been conveyed by. the last speaker. There was never any proposal that this . work,couldilio carried out for £100,000. ; The distance between Wellington and Hutt was 8 miles, and the Railway De- ( , partment undertook tho work. The work was done by degrees, and the amount iii the firsV. Bill'was for £100,000. It could not be said by anybody that the whole work 'of constructing the road v ' and tho railway 'was estimated to cost.; only £100,000. '.The estimates.made by . the Railway engineers may have been, slightly, exceeded, but the, Department v never contemplated construction of the '.' railway and" road costing less than it 1 . did. He did not think tho. road should ' bo a' tax on tho Dominion; if. it was made a national road there; were : ous others 'similarly situated, wherethe people benefited tas'ed theniselves. Tliey would want tho same consideration, ?nd that would be too great a .burden to put on tho Dominiou. His own opinion, was that the £40,000 ' contribution' to tlio local bodies was a very generoue • Wilford said that ,he had tried , to make it clear that a member of the i then Ministry, who .was -in. the other Chamber, had said that the. work.was to M Mr*i°' "WRIGHT (Wellmgton Suburbs) said that it was a fact that the impression was left on tlie muifla of tho people concerned that they were not to be charged . 'anything; like £100,000. They hid .110 idea that,-.tne= road was going to cost : . them oven .' '£50,000. If they, liad> been asked, to foot a bill for £lio,ooo they would have .. paused, and asked tor a-road to cost very much loss. He joined: with the, member for Hutt. in asking the Minis- ' ter of Railway to bring' the contribution down now to £40,000. Tho present levy would, become a burden to many of the local bodies. He pointed out - furtlier that the interest had been originally agreed upon at. 3J per cent. Tho increase to 4' per cent; meant -a .big sum; the Wellington City Council' would 'have to pay an additional,£s7, per year for 50 years, and , tho other bodies pro rata.. Ho thought that there should ba o. readjustment. every,' iivo years, and ho took it that the Minister might, agree to. that in Commit- . tee. The ..local .bodies should also bo : allowed to administer- thoir own affairs . ill this,, ae in other jnattersi National Highways Must Como. Dr. THACICER (Christohurch 'East) said, that the: time was coming when 1 -:

> fctey must, have national roads. It f wuild be in the interests of tho'country 1 foj the National Cabinet to look to the i miter;now. The Hutt Road was being 1 ustd for military purposes, And by 1 vis.tors to the camp, and all that traffic s wal cutting up tho road, but the local £ :boaes.. were .'not getting one , bit of 1 the! upkeep of the road. Er- A.' R. NEWMAN (Wellington t . East) thought: that the lesson from tho Minster'of Finance was that if they . all iiolled a log together they could get'the national;road proposals carried , ouij but tho timo was not this year: , iV/lori these'agreements were made with ' tlif local bodies the interest was fixed I ■s.t'33 P 6 r cent.,! and he thought, it lin- ' fair that the higher rate should bs ' tliarged on account of the war. Ho fioped, the Minister would' agree to re- * due© tho interest. . - I A Most Generous Concession. c ! Mr!'C. H. POOLE (Auckland West) paid he was strongly impressed with the idea that the main arterial roads should ( be inaintaiiied-by the Government. ; But j ■ he thought the Government had made ( a most generous .concessionVto tho local ] bodies in regard to the Hutt Road. - j ; Mr. C.- A. AVILKINSOM (Eltham) su?- < pasted to the member for Hutt' that if .'no wished,to have the. road paid for by 3 iihe people' Using .it he should advocats 1 ; the ; erection of a- toll gate. 'Then tha j s jieoplo hero w;ould realise the blessings < ol such a barrier. ( ; ■ i'Mv.-G. Wi FORBES (Hurunui) hoped the Government would stand firm. Ha 1 considered the concession of £40,000 a c most .liberal one. Also ho hoped the i Government would not lose sight of tho t national highways idea, although he admitted,that , the;present, was- not- the e test timo to embark, on such'sohemos. r A More Satisfactory Bill. Mr. W. H. FIELD .(Otaki) said he considered the Bill more : satisfactory • than the Bill introduced earlier in the session, which latter Bill proposed that < the several local bodies should pay for tho upkeep of the road, while the road . :was to ; be superintended by ono of the ' local bodies only. He was one of those members who had urged the Govern- , : ment, .whatever the xost,. to make the, Hutt Road.' When the Goveriiment laid . • ' it they set about the work with, pick | And-wheel-barrow, ; without any of tha machinery that should have been used r for such: work. In .short the' work, had heon donoinabp-atas. expensive a j manner as possible. • The figure of- E '£100,000' fixed as : the. cost 'of;:the road ' : j . ,was, Iho believed, simply a "pot- j shot" by the Railway*' Department, j • , So. far as he knew no details were ever ( furnished. 'He also complained that the ( traffic tally on which tho apportionment j of the cost was made was .iintau'ly made. £ ' iTlie amount demanded' of Makara ( County, 12 per cent., was so much that { lie did not think the. county, would be , ablis to pay. it. His own impression was j that if the Government had cbsted fair- ( ly. all .the excavation-made for tho rail- , iway tlio total sum to he levied on tho j ■local -bodies would have been' no more , ' than £30,000, aiid he.woiild like even/at j , this late, day to see the Government j revise the bill of cost. ': ' . / ' , * Local Opposition Expected. < ' : The Hon. W. in reply, ] paid he had expected some opposition i to the BiU from the member's represent-, .] ' ing tho City and neighbouring districts, < Jvho no doubt' considered it their,; duty \ to try to get tho Government to reliove 1 their constituents , of as much of the : cost as. .possible. But he Would ask :tho ; : House to help him to. prevent any more j ' inroads heing mad® ! into t'ho .public -j puree. He had very carefully examined f itlie accounts coimected', wifh "the con- j • istruction of the road, and ho had satis-, i -fted himself that; tho. excavation .had • 'all been fairly . charged.'- All . the Jenc- 1 iing had heen'charged railway, i and-to part of''it''to' ! tho : 'roaaF. r : , ';lf ; no .( railway-had been there the road, would i Jiave had to be protected: by an :expen- ;i . wall, .'such, as that now \ ~ :builsTto protect; the railway. -It was' all 1 jvery well to 'say now that the .local hod;, •« les did not' ask for an expensive road, c with water channelling, cycle track, and f bo on, but he quoted from-official doou- i jnents to show that their-demand was 1 for all these things. The .apportionment l of the- cost by Mr. Short was a very i fair one,.by. which the Government must. 1 > stand, Some of the local, bodies, ho bo- ' iiovfid, would not pay even if the amount 1 avas reiduced'to £40,000. , _ 1 Mr. Wilford- I will undertake that i ' there will ,bono ~ objection, if do j Hemes (laughing): Tlio honour- I ahlo member may promise—.• ] Mr. Forbes : Don't you give in. . _ : Mr Herries: I don't intend to. give in ' He said that ho would bo prepared' •in Committee to consider a proposal to i have the 'apportionment, reviewed; every . :: fivo years: , The, objection as to interest \ .'to'be charged .was a. matter for ; the ' Treasury, and lie would rcfet it to the Minister of Finance. '•.■• .. , . j The Bill was read a second time.