TRAFFIC PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 24 March 1931, Page 11

TRAFFIC PROBLEMS

ROAD AND RAILWAY

AN ENGLISH AUTHORITY

An informative-address 'on "Some Traffic .Problems" was .delivered ..at the Eotary Club luncheon to-day' by , Sir. Kees Jeffreys, who in 1910 was appointed by the British. Government to. the position of secretary of the first Central Department of Boads of Great Britain. '■'.'- Mr. Jeffreys said he had recently spent five months investigating the transport problems of North America; He was a delegate-.of : the ,- British Government to, the Canadian, .and to the International Eoad Congresses. Mr. Jeffreys gave evidence before the committee of the American Senate which dealt with the first Federal Aid .Eoad Bill. What the road-department of the Federal Government and the State Congress"had accomplished during the last few years could only be described as an engineering-miracle. • ■'■■■' "Ton in New Zealand started your Main Highways Board in 1924, I find a great record of achievement .in this country. ■" I :should like, to pay my tribute to tlie work of .the Main Highways Board, to Mr.. Furkert and his colleagues, and to Mr.Tyndall and the other officials of the board. They have done a great work in enabling the travelling - public of. this. country to make fuller use'of the motor-vehicle. SOlVlfe SUGGESTIONS. ;: "I think . some' acknowledgment should also be' made to the 'motoring community .for their payment of the heavy taxation which is imposed over and above the taxation they hay paid as citizensj and which they have made toward the cost of this adaptation.-" The spoaker then. xef erred to, the tendency-of governments'to seize funds contributed .by motorists for road purposes .and. apply them to other purposes. 'Ho'; suggested'that. N(jw': Zealand should reduce ;the .number. ;of its highway authorities, .to, say,1, ten :or. twenty in each island;' " •- . '. ' ■•.' ■ The relation between rail' and load transport was a pressing problem; in most parts of the world.-After alluding to the expenditure iii New Zealand bm railways, he. said that any authority which, authorised .further expenditure out of borrowed, money'undertook- a great responsibility. ' '.Eefereiioe' was made to the closing of non-paying lines in England and America/ The speaker also alluded.to tramcars and passenger transport in cities. .The tramcar; he described as "a monopolist—a selfish animal,'' and mentioned the hold-up of traffic at every stopping'place..; -;. ;