MAIN HIGHWAYS

Evening Star, Issue 22047, 5 June 1935, Page 13

MAIN HIGHWAYS

COST tf MAINTENANCE RELIEF FOR FARMERS URGED The cost of the upkeep of main highways was discussed last night at a conference of representatives of the county councils of Otago and of the Automqbile Association, it being urged by the former that the upkeep was too great a burden for farmers, and that tho cost of the maintenance of all highways should be provided through motor taxation. The chairman (Mr F. J. Williams) introduced the matter by stating that with respect to the declaring of main highways the policy of the association was first to assist the locality through which th© road ran, and secondly to endeavour to have those roads which were going to be of the greatest advantage to motorists declared highways. At a later stage Cr Jasper Clark (Bruce County) stated that it seemed to him that the county which pushed the hardest got the most. There should be some system under which highways would be allocated equally among th© counties. He instanced the Molyneux Island district from which, he stated, all the produce was brought by motor. It was estimated that the district paid £I,OOO a year in motor taxation, but not one penny went back to the people concerned in the shape of a subsidy for the improvement of their roads. “ The farmers are completely put off th© roads by this motor business,” Cr Clark added. “We cannot drive sheep to the freezing works without having half of them killed, and if we put them on a lorry it costs up to 6d a head. If you tar-seal all the roads you put the horse and dray off them. The main highways should be a first charge on motor taxation, and there should be a £1 for £1 subsidy on side roads. _ I am confident that directly and indirectly tho farmer is paying 85 per cent, of motor taxation.”

Cr Ritchie (Vincent County) said that he was in agreement with a great deal that Cr Clark had said. The highways system had been a great benefit to local bodies. His own opinion was that none of tho farmers’ rates should go towards the upkeep of main highways. His council claimed that its first duty was to provide a reasonable road from the farm to tho railway, but it found that it would require the whole of th© rates to keep the highways in good order, leaving out altogether the matter of farmers’ roads. The time was coming when the whole_ of the cost of the maintenance of main highways would have to be paid out of motor taxation. It had been estimated that about onethird of the taxation in New Zealand was paid by the rural population. Surely that was sufficient without asking the farmer to contribute towards the cost of highways. Cr Clark: I am as pleased as a dog with two tails that I have converted one man. (Laughter.) Cr Lee (Lake County) issued a warning that if the highways were taken over by th© Public Works Department there would bo a danger of centralisation of control and even of political control.,, . The chairman also urged the coiinty representatives not to lose control of the roads, but to strive to obtain greater subsidies. , Mr P. W. Breen stated that it was regarded as 1 ’ - almost certain that the £500,000 which the Government had taken from the motor taxation would be returned to the Highways Fund.