MAIN HIGHWAYS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 119, 15 November 1929, Page 12

MAIN HIGHWAYS

KEEPING PACE WITH MOTORS

INTERESTING ANALYSES

The steady progress which has been inado in the last five years in the improvements of roads generally throughout the Dominion is shown in a detailed review of the activities of the Main Highways Board, contained in the board's annual report for the past year. Analysing the increasing expenditure on roads, the board compares it with the development in motor transportation .and with the expenditure being incurred on the main highway system in other countries.

The amount of construction work aci complished on main highways since the "board commenced to funetioa is represented by 635 miles of formation and widening, 620 miles of gravelling and metalling, 262 miles of tai; and bituminous sealing, 174 miles of bituminous macadam, 30 miles of bituminous concrete, and 39 miles of Portland cement concrete, a total of 1760 miles, plus 31,252 - feet of bridges. As the question is sometimes raised as to whether highway development in New Zealand is not proceeding at too great a rate, the board points out that it is merely the result of development of motor transportation, and that therefore comparison beweeu the two should show some relationship. In 1924 the total rural mileage of improved surfaces was 325 miles; this has been increased in five years to 830 miles. By means of a graph the board shows that the advances made in road-construction have not been disproportiate to the use made of the roads by motor-vehicles. A further graph shows Jh'at the expenditure has not been inconsistent with the development of motor transportation, and the board points out incidentally that it is evident that if the petrol tax had not been imposed in 1927, highway activities would have lagged considerably behind motor development. COMPARISONS WITH AUSTRALIA. Affording comparisons with other countries, it is pointed out that in Victoria the Country Roads Board, the counterpart of the New Zealand Main Highways Board, has been in operation for about sixteen years, while in New South Wales the Main Eoads Eoard has been in operation for about four years. The comparisons between those two States and New Zealand are best made aS follows: — N. 7.. N.S.W." Viet. " (31st March, (30tli June, (30tli June, i 1929) 1928) 1928) j . £ s. d. £ s. d. £.' s. d. Total expenditure £1,917,000 £3,3G5,G00 £2,265,500 Expenditure per motor vehicle 9 12 0 16 0 0 15 2 0 Expenditure ■ . per-head of population .. 101 177 157 The figures per head of population are in remarkably close accord, while the expenditure per motor vehicle in New Zealand is very substantially lower than in the two Australian States. ELEVEN AMERICAN STATES. A similar tabulation has been prepared showing the same information (in respect to 1327) for eleven of the American States, the populations of which range from 800,000 to 2,506,000, a range which includes' the population of the Australian States and New Zealand. The average 'expenditure on highways per head of population for the eleven States referred to is £1 6s 6d —a shade over the New' Zealand figure, and almost exactly the average between Victoria and New South Wales. "Again it is obvious," states the "board, "that if the petrol tax had not been imposed in Now Zealand highway expenditure would have lagged considerably behind that of our -neighbours, as the expenditure j>er head of populati'n in this country for the year 1927-28 was only 14s 7d." Although the above in,formation goes to show that main highway activities have just reached a stage comparative with what is being Hone in other countries, it is not .desired to give the impression that roading development in New Zealand as a whole has lagged behind corresponding development elsewhere. OTHER COMPARISONS. An interesting diagram discloses that as far as the proportion.of all-weather surfaced mileage is concerned, New Zealand is many years in advance of the United States,"but that New Zealand is well behind the United States in the provision of the improved surfaces required specially for motortraflic. The" latter result is largely accounted for by the fact-that the traffic density per mile.of road on the arterial roads of the United States of America is very much greater than in New Zealand. Eighty per cent, of roads in U.S.A. are shown to be unsurfaced, as compared with about 37" per cent, in New Zealand; about 15 per cent, of American roads have gravel and metal surfaces, as against about 60 per cent, in. .New Zealand; and what are termed "high type surfaces" amount in U.S.A. to 5 per cent., as against 2i per cent, in New Zealand.