The Evening Star. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1936. STATE HIGHWAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 22365, 15 June 1936, Page 8

The Evening Star. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1936. STATE HIGHWAYS.

The proposal of tlio Government to take' over 4,146 miles of arterial' roads in New Zealand and to make itself responsible, througli the Main Highways Board, for their construction and maintenance can he rated among the soundest which have been put forward since the Labour Party's attainment of power. The importance of a country s reading system to its economic progress cannot be too strongly emphasised, and for many years New Zealanders have had an uneasy feeling that, even in such a young dominion as theirs, the advancement made has not been commensurate with the national requirements. The unification, tentative arrangements for which have been announced by the Minister - of Public Works (the Hon. 11. Semple) means a welcome elaboration of the Main Highways Board policy and the elimination of a patchwork sj r stem of road maintenance inseparable from the multiplicity of control now in existence. It is encouraging to note that the Government’s ban on boards is not to be allembracing. The Main Highways Board

to bo constituted the central authority with Dominion-wido jurisdiction, although major works arc to be officially blessed by Ministerial sanction belorc a start is made on them. Probably this latter feature of the proposal is more or less a matter of form intended to fit in with the Government’s ideas that the representatives of the people should bo responsible for public expenditure. However, as long as the works are good —and there is every promise that they will be so—electors are not likely to worry over the source of the “ last word.”

At first glance it would appear that the decision not to transfer to the State the responsibility for antecedent liabilities incurred by certain local bodies constitutes a penalty for enterprise. Some local authorities have been more industrious than others, and it seems that those which have been backward, cither through lethargy or disinclination to spend money on their particular sections of the main roads, arc to escape more lightly perhaps than they deserve. It is inevitable, however, that there has to be a cl car-cut starting point in the Inauguration of the new system. From |he date pa which act arterial highway.

is classified as a State highway the full cost of construction and maintenance will bo met from the Highways Fund, and where work is still in hand at the time of classification an apportionment will be made under which the local body will pay its contribution only up to the date -m which the State highway is taken over. The programme as a whole is sufficiently ambitious to indicate approaching expenditure that would be rendered all the more formidable by any resolve to pay for works already completed. The fact that local authorities arc to be relieved of the contributions they would make in -the ordinary course of events towards arterial construction and maintenance, thus permitting them to concentrate on providing better facilities for farmers and others remote from the main thoroughfares, should in itself bo so welcome as to preclude criticism. Apart from the unity of control that is assured and the expectation of improved surfaces for back country transport, Air Semple’s statement and accompanying schedule of State highways show that thought has been devoted to the care of roads in both the North Island and the South Island along which tourist traffic runs with some degree of regularity. In a country that is fast coming to a full understanding of the importance of opening up its scenic attractions in the most enterprising manner possible this aspect of the programme will increase the confidence with which fulfilment of the new scheme should be awaited.