HIGHWAYS FINANCE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 August 1930, Page 5

HIGHWAYS FINANCE.

AN UNSOLVED PROBLEM.

WHOLE QUESTION TO GO TO PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE NEXT SESSION.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day.

Replying in the House of Representatives to the debate on the second reading of the Finance Bill, the Prime Minister (Mr Forbes), speaking after the telegraph office had closed at 2 a.m., said there had been a good deal of criticism with regard to the Highways Board. He submitted that, if the Government had discontinued payments to the Highway Board and made no provision for road construction, there would have been ground for complaint; but it had made such provision, and money for the purpose was being obtained from the additional tax of 2d on petrol. He contended that when the arrangement had been made with the motorists regarding Highways Board grants, it had never been expected that it was to continue irrespective of the state of the finances of the country in the future. As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister considered that the time had come when the question of the Highways Board should be reviewed. It was his intention, either before or during the next session, to submit the whole question to the Public Accounts Committee of the House, to ascertain whether the present system of highways taxation could be placed on a more

satisfactory basis. The finances of the country (Mr Forbes went on) appeared to be getting into an unsound state, when complaints were being made that there were certain funds on which no one must lay hands.

Referring to the Bill generally, M; Forbes said it had been framed in such a way that the necessity to cope with the strain on the Dominion’s finances had been met without imposing an undue burden on any one section of the community. RESPONSIBILITY IN EARTHQUAKE AREA. Mr D. G. Sullivan (Avon), had complained against the decision that the South Island Highways Board should have to provide the cost of restoring certain roads in the earthquake area. The Prime Minister said that the funds of the Board were in a far more buoyant 'position than the Consolidated Fund. All that the Board was asked to do was to repair the roads under its own control.