TURNPIKES FOR MODERN ROADS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3127, 24 July 1922, Page 8

TURNPIKES FOR MODERN ROADS.

A modern equivalent of the turnpike gate would appear to be necessary in order to provide for the upkeep of roads. Discussing “The Finance of the Modern Highway” at the Congress of the Institute of Transport in London lately, Mr Dixon H. Davies instanced this anomaly:—-“A ton of hale and ease goods passing from Liverpool to Manchester by railway pays, according to a fair unlysis of the railway rate, from 2d to dd per mile in respect of the provision, upkeep and renewal of the road upon which if travels. ' A similar ton ot goods performing the same journey by the highway in a motor lorry pays less than a farthing a mile for the provision, upkeep and renewal of the road.” The difference is made up, said Mr Davies, by the fact that highway provision is running into arroar. “There is, however, a heavy expenditure on the roads met out of the rates from which source ft large sum is annually provided. This sum at the present time is about 40 millions a year for the whole of the United Kingdom. It is increasing by leaps and bounds and on an average is about three times what was contributed in Iff Id, and in some counties this increase is even greater. This call upon the rates Inis reached the dimensions of a grievous burden, and it; seems to ho generally admitted that no increased revenue for the purpose can be looked for from that source. The natural result, therefore, is that the arm'ir of road provision and maintenance is mounting steadily and is reacting upon those who conduct, or are indirectly dependent upon, the transport trades which are thus suffering from the inevitable to ils attendant upon an industry insufficiently supplied with capital.” lu order to equalise the position between road and rail, Mr Davies said, flic charge in the former ease would have to he raised to about .‘id per ton mile, which would mean a. license duty of about C•'$()() instead of £.‘|D, “A license duly ot L'.'if'O sounds somewhat high in modern ears, hut it is probably no more than the tolls would have amounted to under the old turnpike system allowing for the difference in flic value of money. Indeed, we are fold that the cost in tolls of a stage coach between Manchester and London Wha! is the most beautiful spot in Ureal Britain? A preponderance of opinion seems to be in favor of Scot.tisb scenes. Royal Deeside is the most favored district, although the Calloway counties, Bute, and Loch Lomond neighborhood have nearly as many supporters. In Fmdand the Lake District, then Cornwall and Devon, come in for a great deal of admiration. About Wales opinion seems to have divided abruptly into two classes, one which considers the far northern districts the most beautiful and one which praises the grandeur of Merionethshire’s mountains and—travelling south of the Mawddach Kstuary—the Cader Idris environment. A Crimean veteran, Mr Charles Finery, Bridgwater fFng.), who is DO, claims to hold a record among greatgrandfathers. One of his ten children writes :—“We—the ID brothers and sisters—are all living. Fight are married and have children, and six are grandparents. So my lather is a greatgrandfather six times over.”