ARTERIAL ROADS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 260, 28 July 1921, Page 5

ARTERIAL ROADS

GOVERNMENT’S SCHEME ANNOUNCED CONSTRUCTION TO BE ON NATIONAL v BASIS MOTOR LICENSES AND TYRE TAX The Minister of Public Works (the Hon. J. G. Coates) yesterday gave a Dominion reporter an outline of the Arterial Hoads Bill that is to bo placed )m>fora Parliament during the coming session The Bill will propose that arterial roads shall bo a national charge. They will bo constructed and maintained by an Arterial Roads Board, and will be supported by special taxation on motor vehicles and tyres. "The Question of arterial road communication has been receiving my attention ever since I have been Minister of Public Works," said Mr. Coates. "Several Bills were drafted, each involving the local bodies in the administration of the scheme, but I eventually came to the conclusion that the problem was essentially a national one, involving national control. Therefore, as will bo seen in the accompanying statement, which , has received the approval of Cabinet, 1 have made a new departure by eliminating the local bodies from the scheme. "The Bill has not been printed, but it will be prepared for the Government Printer exactly on tho lines indicated in this statement. Therefore, local bodies and all interested in the matter can take this statement as a clear indication of what is proposed. The Bill -will simply put the sdheme into statutory form. "The development of motor traffic in recent years has greatly altered the conditions of travel and created the necessity for improvement of our main highways. Formerly, rapid traffic by land, whether of passengers or goods, was effected solely by means of railway facilities, and tho objective in road construction and maintenance was to provide Ways sufficient for horse-drawn, wheeled traffic, feeding the railways where railways existed, and providing t'he means of conveyance within and between localities. It has now become clear in all parts of the world which are closely Inhabited that to a largo extent the rapid traffic of the future .will be conducted by motors equipped with rubber tyres, and requiring therefore a mudh higher class of construction, and more extensive maintenance, of the road surface. The original- policy of constructing arterial railways must therefore now bo supplemented by the construction and maintenance to a higher degree of perfection of arterial highways. Railways were—and with few exceptions still are —constructed and maintained wholly out of Dominion funds, without subvention from local finance. Tho present exceptions to that rule that the local bodies are now permitted to construct and maintain, out of local finance, light railways to feed and supplement the main arterial railways. « "The policy to be regarded in the future, and to bq adopted as far as Is possible for the present with respect to roods should ho upon the same general lines as the policy of roads and railways in tho past, i Main arterial roads should be constructed, reconstructed, and maintained by the Dominion as a whole, while roads of a purely local interest, or county interest, must be constructedand maintained wholly by local body finance, with such assistance from the Government in the way of grants for construction and subsidies for metalling as the financial circumstances of the Dominion will permit. “But in the case of railways, the provision for maintenance and for paying interest upon cost of construction is made by charges upon those who use the railway, whether as passengers or for goods traffic, and the same must be tho case in regard to tho provision of Dominion finance for the construction and maintenance of arterial highways to enable rapid motor traffic to be conducted. Ono simple method of such provision would be to establish tolls on the arterial highways for the collection of charges, as the charges are collected at railway stations on railways, end that simple method would have the advantage of charging ordinary horse oi- stoam-drawn, wheeled traffic as well as motor traffic. But tho collection by toll of charges for the use of roads is inconvenient, obsolete and often unfair in its incidence, and mist necessarily be rejected in any well-considered policy. Other methods must therefore be adopted to effect tho same object, namely, that tho class of vehicles and of persons for which and whom tho means of rapid traffic are provided should contribute a large proportion of the cost to the Dominion. It is to be borne in mind that existing main road conditions are generally quits* Adequate for any form of transport other than what may be termed 'high speed traffic.’ in other words, motor traffic. "Tho Government proposes by tho Bill to bo introduced in tho coming session, effective provision for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of suchmain roads as may be declared arterial highways out of Dominion finance, relieving local finance ofi’all cost and charge in respect of such arterial highways, and thereby increasing the amount which, out of local finance, the local authorities can provide for the better construction and maintenance of district end county roads, and enable the necessary annual supply of Dominion funds for the first purpose. "To prevent the policy above defined collapsing in its earliest stages, it is essential that tho roads to Ire defined as mein arterial highways during tho first few years of tho operation of tue .Act should be strictly limited in extent, and therefore many roads which it is believed will ultimately come within the definition, of miain arterial highways, can be transferred from local burden to' Dominion finances, must, for tho time present, ba excluded, and tho present effort limited to effective construction and maintenance of a muoh less extent of roadway.

"The second essential requirement is that as far as possible the expenditure of moneys provided out of Dominion finance for maintenance and construction of main arterial highways should be removed from political or parochial influence of every kind. It is only in dealing with main highways under a comprehensive policy free from nil local influence that material progress and improvement can be achieved within reasonable time.

"The determination of the particular part of a highway to be constructed, reconstructed or maintained, and of the particular parts of a highway requiring special and exceptional expenditure on maintenance should bo left to an independent expert board, without interference from Government or Parliament, except so far as is necessary to preserve tho Government control of expenditure of Government money.

"The Bill to he submitted for consideration of Parliament will propose provision for:— 1. Tho definition of what shall bo for the present main arterial highways for the purposes of tho Bill. S. Tho constitution of a board of departmental engineers and other gentlemen under whoso control both tho arterial highways and all moneys funded for the purpose of the con-

struction and maintenance of such highways shall be placed. 8. Finance. —The first roads to bs- declared main arterial highways will be:— In the North Island: A road from Kaitaia to Wellington, via Auckland, Hamilton. To Kuiti. Waitara. and Wanganui. A road from Wellington to Gisborne. In the South Island: A toad from Blenheim to tho Bluff,

and a road from Blenheim, via Nelson, to Hokitika. “The Bill will propose that finance shall be provided: (1) By a special duty on tyres. (2) By a license fee (ap-art from local body registration fee) on every four or three-wheeled motor vehicle, motor cycle, and sido car and motor cycle. It is proposed that the license fee should he identical in amount for every fourwheeled vehicle, without deferentiation for weight or power, and that there should be another uniform fee less in amount for throe-wheeled vehicles, and a third uniform fee for two-wheeled vehicles. (3) By money provided by Parliament annu'ally from either the Public Works Fund or Consolidated Fund. "It must bo added that where part of a main arterial highway is a street or a city or borough, such part will continue to be constructed and maintained aa at present out of city or borough funds. It is not proposed that tho Board of Main Arterial Highways shall have any power or duty in respect of tho streets of a borough or city. Having regard to tho opportunity offered in cities and boroughs of more intensive taxation on highly valued property, and the fact that highspeed traffic and its consequent destruction of roads is not permissible or possible to anything like the same extent in boroughs or cities as it is on th® opi-n road, tho exclusion of main highways in boroughs and cities from the operation of tho Bill is considered fair and reasonable.