NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 173, 10 April 1923, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

In directing attention to the. position of the Hutt County roads the Wellington Automobile Club has performed a valuable public service. Motor transport in New Zealand has run far ahead of motor roads, and in few settled portions of the Dominion is the failure to keep road maintenance abreast of changing conditions more noticeable than in the Hutt County. Hitherto the tendency has been .to regard the Hutf. County as a hardly-used body, staggering under the burden of heavy road maintenance costs for the benefit of road users from outside its boundaries. Already the county council has received contributions towards its roads and bridges from neighbouring local bodies, and its projected toll-gates on the Day’s Bay road to collect more revenue from residents in outside areas is only held up pending agreement as to the term for which toll-collecting is to bo allowed. The Automobile Club suggests that Hutt County ratepayers are very lightly burdened, and that before going cap in hand for donations from outside sources, the county is capable of doing much more for itself, and that, apart from any question of outside traffic, more up-to-date road construction and maintainance would bo a profitable investment for Hutt County ratepayers. An exact comparison of relative burdens in rates and debts is not easy, as many factors enter. There are more lightly rated counties than the Hutt, but the fact remains that the more progressive counties have found it profitable to shoulder vastly heavier burdens in rates and reap their return in the innumerable and varied benefits that good roads bring. Hutt County goes on mending its roads in practically the same old way that it did before the first motor-car ran over them, and the surfaces of its main highway are one long string of pot-holes and bumps. It is high time the county took stock of the position.

I<r was hoped that the form of the Wellington soldiers memorial having at last been decided on all interested would concentrate their efforts on raising the required funds. Mr. A. P. Whatman, of Masterton, however, has introduced what may prove to be a discordant note. Mr. Whatman, who is recognised to be a whole-hearted champion of the interests of returned soldiers, and who personally han behaved with great generosity towards them, holds the view that the returned men would be better served if the funds collected were used for the erection of a soldiers’ club building. He believes that something which would be of benefit to the men who came back is better than a monument commemorative of their services and sacrifices, and those of the men who fought and died. He does not object to a monument, but places it second to his utilitarian proposal. The meeting of returned soldiers which Mil. Whatman has summoned in the Town Hall to-morrow evening may endorse his views. They may express preference for a club building rather than the memorial decided on, but we doubt whether this would truly represent public sentiment on the question even if it represented the sentiment of the great bulk of the returned soldiers themselves. The soldiers' club may bo a good thing, and a thing to bo striven for, but the movement in favour of tho erection of a memorial is a matter quite separate and apart. The memorial is intended to do honour to tho dead as well as to the living; to serve as a permanent reminder to present and future generations that in tho years from 1914 to 1918 the call of duty met with noble response from tho young men of New Zealand, and that their splcnu. spirit of sacrifice is a treasured memory. A soldiers' club building may be worth striving for —it will benefit the lew. A fitting memorial, however, will render tribute which is duo to all the living and the dead—and in recalling the service of those it honours inspire others who pome after with the same spirit of devotion to their country.