HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 86, 10 April 1924, Page 9

HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES

BYLAW AGREED UPON

TO DO AWAY W,ITH ANOMALIES. i

After three conferences, representatives of the Wellington City Council, the Eastbourne, Petone, and "Lower Hutt Borough Councils, the Upper Hutt and Johnsoriville Town Boards, and the Hutt and Makara County Councils have agreed upon a bylaw which it is hoped will do away with many anomalies which have, up till now, existed as a result of local bodies levying upon owners of heavy traffic vehicles running upon their roads or through the areas within their jurisdiction, notwithstanding that the owners of those vehicles had already been levied upon by other local bodies. .No end of trouble had been caused by such double levies, remarked the Mayor, Mr. R. A. Wright, to a "Post" reporter, not alone in the Wellington district, but in all parts of the country, as Press Association messages and not infrequent Court proceedings showed, and it was to overcome that position tftat the conference of local bodies was called. He believed that the decision which had been come to was a just one, both to vehicle owners and to the. local bodies concerned, and though the fee agreed upon was higher than the average local body fee at present yet the advantage would be with i the motorists who might otherwise be called upon to pay a double or treble fee. It had been agreed that the City Council should be the parent registering body and should, after deducting 15 per cent, in respect of1 bookkeeping and clerical work,' divide the moneys collected among the local bodies concerned on the basis of their contributions to the maintenance of the Hutet road, namely, Wellington City 44^ per cent., Eastbourne i per cent., Petone 18 per cent., Lower Hutt 14 per cent., Upper Hutt lj per cent,, Johnsonville 2 per cent., Hutt County 8 per cent., and Maka'ra County 12 per cent. The bylaw, however, would .have no connection with the Hutt road or Hutt road fees, that, basis being agreed upon merely because it was considered convenient and equitable. Nor would the new bylaw have anything to do with Highways Bill; it was an attempt to clear away difficulties and anomalies ■which had existed under the system of separate registration by separate bodies. '. It was intended .to make the new'regulation applicable to one-ton 'trucks and over, and as the Public Works Act at present referred only to vehicles of three tons. and upwards amending legislation would necessarily have to be sought. With that aim in view it was proposed that a deputation representing the local bodies interested should shortly wait upon the Minister of Public Works.