GOOD ROADS AND BAD

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 109, 9 May 1923, Page 9

GOOD ROADS AND BAD

HUTT COUNTY'S DEFENCE

DEPUTATION OF MOTORISTS

SPIRITED PROCEEDINGS.

A deputation from the Wellington Automobile Club waited on the Hutt County Council yesterday afternoon in regard to the question of good roads. The deputation was briefly welcomed by the chairman of the council, Councillor H. D. Atkinson.

Mr. C. M. Banks, president of the Automobile Club, stated the purpose of the deputation, referring to the report of a committee of the club, published in "The Post" some time ago, that the roads in the county were worse than anywhere else between Wellington and New Plymouth The Chairman: "Then people who say so must have been drunk."

Mr. Banks referred to half the roads in the county as being in a dreadful state and the other half unfit for modem traffic.

At this stage, with the consent of the council, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce (Mr. John Myers) was admitted to the proceedings.

Mr. Banks continued to the effect that the council had been relieved of a good deal of expense by the Government taking over a number of miles of road and putting them in order. Further, there was a prospect of additional relief in the application of the Highways Act, when it was passed. The club considered that the council under these circumstances should be able to maintain roads like the Day's Bay road without resorting to toll-gates. Toll-gates, even in Taranaki, in many instances cost much of the revenue they brought in to maintain.

Mr. Banks mentioned the offer the club had made of £100 for the fencing of the Paekakariki Hill road.. Until it was fenced, the road would always be dangerous. A good many deaths had occurred, and more might occur, if nothing was done.

The Chairman: "If you make a wide road, people become careless, and that's how accidents occur, speeding and cars running off the road." •

Members of deputation: "Some were cases of cars running back."

DIFFERENCE IN RATING. Further reference was made by Mr. Banks to th<! difference in rating between the Hutt County and the Taranaki Counties. This was in regard to the statements by the chairman of the Hutt County Council in a letter to the Press. Mr. Banks said that the figures reckoned on stock-carrying capacity—a fair basis—showed that Hutt was collecting only half what the Taranaki counties collected per head of stock. The instance of Waimate County showed that good roads could be maintained without tollgates.

Mr. Banks declared that these Taranaki counties were actually saving money by furnishing better roads in their districts. He quoted figures.'' As far as motorists were concerned, it had been proved that on Taranaki roads cars did four miles more to the gallon than on the average country road. This applied all round would mean an annual saving of £11,000 to motorists in New Zealand as regards petrol, and, if the all-inclusive saving were taken, it would mean over half a million. Mr. Murray, Public Works Engineer, had estimated that a saving of three-quarters of a million sterling on upkeep of vehicles could be saved by concrete roads. Mr. Banks said the figures he had quoted referred to a saving' of over half a million on bitumen topped roads. Personally, he was quite sure that it would pay the county to go in for good roads, if they employed a good engineer. The Chairman: "Can you put us on to one? A prominent engineer in Wellington is still experimenting on roads." Mr. Banks agreed that there had been failures, but the experience had been valuable. Motorists were willing to be taxed. . . >

The Chairman: "You are being taxed, are you not?" ' Mr. Banks: "Yes."

"And you think it is a fair tax?"— "Yes, we do." Mr. Banks concluded by a strong appeal to the council to consider the roads question carefully. GOOD ROADS PAY. Mr. John Myers, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, pointed out how the prosperity of a county depended on its roads. Good roads would serve the county itself as well as the motorist. America had proved the value of good roads. , Mr. George Nathan, speaking as a ratepayer of the county, declared that the roads were unfair to the ratepayers themselves. The road between Paekakariki and Paraparaumu was hardly worth calling a road. ; Mr. Goldberg agreed that the roads, particularly in the Hutt Valley, were bad.

The Chairman : "Where is the money going?" Deputation: "Filling up pot-holes." The Chairman said that the roade in the Hutt Valley had been down SO years. Mr. Goldberg: "All the more reason why they should be pulled up and put down with proper depth of foundations."

The Chairman: "Give us,the money then."

CHAIRMAN IN REPLY,

The Chairman, in reply, eaidl it was a pity none of the members had had experience of local government. The council was bound to spend money in certain ways. The Day's Bay road had to be maintained out of a particular fund.

Mr. Banks: "Does that not come out of the general rate?" The Chairman said that money could only be laid out where it was raised. Horokiwi money could not be spent iv Wainui. The deputation had selected some of the best counties of New Zealand for comparison. The Taranaki counties were not comparable with the Hutt County. Mr. Nathan had said that the other side of the Paekakariki Hill was as bad as ever. The chairman said that he disagreed In any case, why should the Government not maintain that road? It would be taken over under the Highways Act, he believed. Again, the country round Paekakariki was only third-class, as compared with Taranaki's first-class oountry. It was worse on the Rimutuaka—all waste lands of the Crown not producing rates. The Akatarawa road had been handed by the Government to the county, and here again the land was poor. Did they expect tar-sealed or bitumen roads in counties like that ?

Mr. Banks: "No, we should not expect good roads in the backblocks." The Chairman said tho county had) scored on the admission of the club that, where there was no motor traffic, the roads were good. Mr. Nathan: "You mean that the roads are in good order, because they carry no traffic." The Chairman : "You are paying a tire tax? You believe in the tire tax?'! Mr. Nathan: "Yes." The Chairman : "So do we." Mr. Banks: "Then we are in agreement."

The Chairman, submitted %aj;

| county did not get any of the tire tax. Mr. Banks: "But we are not getting anything either for it." The Chairman : "You are getting the use of our roads." (Laughter.) UNFAIR COMPARISONS. The discussion then turned to the com • parison with Taranaki, where the chairman submitted that the conditions were quite different. Toll gates furnished a large proportion of the revenue. Mr. Banks: "What about Waimate'— no toll gates and the best roads in Taranaki?" t The Chairman : "The pick of Tarandki." Mr. Banks: "We can't afford to have bad roads.'.' The Chairman : "Quite bo. This county is different, from any other county in New Zealand. You are asking us to provide roads for a population of 80,000. There are lorries which take benzine up to Palmerston and bring back wood to the city." Mr. Nathan : " They are bringing your stuff in." The Chairman : "Not on your life; it'a for the city. Where would you be but for the farmer?" Mr. Nathan: "Where do the tomatoes come from?" The Chairman : "Nelsicm." Mr. Nathan: "What about Paraparaumu—lorry loads?"

APPEAL FOR CO-OPERATION.

Mr. Banks at this point, when the argument was getting warm, appealed again for co-operation. The club wanted to co-operate and help the counties. The Chairman said the law would 1 not allow the council to spend more. Mr. Nathan: "Then we will, alter the law to suit."

The Chairman : "Then we will come at you." Mr. Banks referred again to the willingness of motorists to co-operate. The Chairman : "You have been telling us that for about two years, and you have been telling Mr. Coates, but nothing has come of it. That is all I know.' ■ ROADS AND ROAD HOGS. Councillor Foley then blamed motorists for the condition of the Hutt road. On race days the racing out and home did a great deal of damage. Life was nothing to road hogs. Mr. L. A. Edwards: "Mr.. Chairman, I object to that. It is getting a, little too hot."

Councillor Foley declared that he had seen cars racing past one another three or four abreast. One of the wealthiest men in Wellington was one of the worst offenders, a man who went up the road three or four times a week at 40 miles; an hour.

Mr. Nathan: " Why not prosecute him?"

Councillor Foley: "We can't. We are not in the position of a borough to take action." The city, he said, derived all the benefit from the roads. " This county," he continued, " is up against it, and the only way is to have a commission, and come to some arrangement where we may be on a sound basis. Wellington derives all the benefit and shelves the question of cost." •

Mr. Nathan: "Don't you get any benefit?"

- Councillor Foley: "We get absolutely none."

The solution, he concluded, was a round-table conference to bring pressure to bear on the proper authorities.

The Chairman : "We are after good roads as well as you."

Councillors A. Mackay and John Whiteman also spoke urging that the whole question was one of money. The Chairman • summed up the proceedings by stating that the council was doing its best under difficult conditions. The council was prepared to raise its roads gradually up to certain standards. The question of roads wag very difficult., and even now expert opinions differed as to what were the best roads.

WHAT ABOUT A LOAN?

Mr. Banks asked if the Hutt Council would consider the question of raising a loan to put down modern roads. '

The Chairman said the county was waiting for the Highways Bill. They felt sure the board would take over the main roads. He was not quite at on* on the question of raising loan. Mr. Banks: "You can't do it any other way." If they could not bear the whole cost, he asked, would the county ask the club to help them to find the rest required ?

The Chairman.: "If we get a.loan, you will turn us down."

Mr. Banks: " No, we won't. We will help you. We promise to do that." Mr. Banks said they were prepared to wait on the Minister to form a commission to deal with the Day's Bay road.

The upshot of the deputation was an informal understanding to wait for the Main Highways Bill to come into force before further proceedings. The club agreed, on the assurance that the council was rating itself fairly for its roads, to give every assistance in the movement for better roads.