ROAD BETTERMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1927, Page 24

ROAD BETTERMENT

NEW SOUTH WALES

NATIONAL POLICY WANTED

(From "Tho Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, Bth September. Someone onco observed that tlio best roads in Sydney were thoso that led out of it. Whilo that may not bo quite correct the present big drivo forbcttor roads, sponsored by tho National Eoads and Motorists' Association, is not without justification. Tho association is urging, among othor things, that tho whole of tho not proceeds from motor taxation, fees, licenses, etc., estimated at about £1,500,000 for noxt year, should, with the addition of tho Fodoral subsidy, bo put into a special roads fund, and that, whatever money the local councils havo for road purposes should be dovotod exclusively to tho local' roads, and not to main or dovplopmental roads. Already it has been proposed, and the proposal has been generally accepted, that a special Transportßoard shbulds bo croated to doal with road and traffic problems. It has now bpen suggested that such a body should have tho widor authority of a Roads and Transport Commission, with npeeifle powor to frame a national policy in relation to roads and road transport, and to traffic generally. Tho Main Roads Board, it is genor-

ally recognised, is doing a very useful work in New South Wales, but it is contended that a Commission, exercising the same legislative authority as tho Water Board, the Harbour Trust, and other bodies, would bo protected against tho political, financial, and other embarrassments which seem to dog the path of the Eoads Board.

The big figure behind the present drive is, an ex-Prime Minister, Mr. J. C. Watson, who was a power in tho councils of the Labour Party before it figuratively put its head in the oven and turned the gas on. That was some years ago.