TOLLGATES

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 12 August 1921, Page 5

TOLLGATES

WAIMATE WEST COUNTY VIEWS

At yesterday s meeting of the Waimate West County Council the chairman, Cr T. McPhillips, stated that he had attended a-meeting at Hawera at which engineers of the Public Works Department had heard the views of ditterent local bodies on the toll-gates question. As councillors knew, his remarks at that meeting had been the cause of the chairman of the Hawera County Council inserting a letter in the local press, in which he took exception to what the speaker meant was the difference between the average cost of cartage per ton to the railway in the Hawera and Waimate Counties respectively. He wished to point out it did not cost Waimate West ratepayers 9s 6d to go through the toll-gate, but owing to the distance they were away from the railway and also to the presence of the toll-gates it cost their ratepayers on an average 15s a ton to carfc product to the railway as against the Hawera ratepayers' average -of between 5s and 5s 6d a ton. It was an injustice for any county which was situated alongside a railway to erect toll-gates and take advantage of the geographical position of a neighbouring county which was not as fortunate in that respect as themselves. The Wa;mate West County were penalised quite enough by being so far from a railway without having any additional imposition in the way of a toll-gate. As far a£ tne ._actuai giving of permission to the different counties to erect tollgates was concerned he did hot see why there should be any privileged counties If one county had a right to erect toll-gates every other country in JVew Zealand should have tno same "gh.S> But if every county in New Zealand was going to erect toll-gates the cost of doing so would be absurd from an economic point of view. It was a well-known fact that any system of taxation which entailed heavy expense m collection was a bad one. If the Hawera County was receiving the amount they had stated from the South road, toll-gate then they were receiving a! greater amount than was necessary to! keep that six miles of road without! ever touching the rates accruing fromi the properties abutting on the road The,Xaim^ te West County Councill would be willing to take over that «is j miles of road for £1000 a year, and as' soon as they obtained possession they would abolish the toll-gate. The speak- '■ er stated that the Council did not want to be unjust, but at the same time they Ct! mot Slt still and S° oft paying the toll as though it was the right and proper thing to do. l£ the ratepayers were agreeable the Waimate West County would take over the whole rid-, ing. , Cr McPhillips continued: At the in•' quiry in Hawera the tyre tax question' came up. This tax, which would proD-, ably amount to about £5 per annum' per car, would be paid through the Customs Department, and according to; what they heard of the proposed Main Koads Bill would be spent on roads that the majority of their taxpayers might never travel over. His idea of a tyre tax was that it should be collect- i ed and paid back to the counties in tho way of an increased subsidy. i Gr Long said the engineers should have, sat to help decide whether tollgates should be abolished altogether or permission given all counties to erect them. As the chairman had stated, the Hawera County was collecting more from their toll-gate on the South road than was necessary to keep the road, j Cr Stevenson agreed with the remarks that had been voiced, and stated that it was eyident that the chairman had made their position very clear to the meeting at Hawera. .- I _ The chairman mentioned that the Counties' Conference to be held in September would discuss the Main Roads Bill. He suggested that they should wait until the next monthly meeting w^f\ they would have a copy of the .Bill before them, before discussing it further. & Cr Stevenson was not in favour of this suggestion and stated that as other councils ha<r discussed the matter, their silence might be taken as though they were sitting down without making a protest. Continuing he pointed" out that the main roads would be under Government control, and this would probably mean an additional expense. He considered it would be a" retrograde step for the Government to take the control of any roads away from local bodies, especially if a large sum of money raised for expenditure on those roads was eaten up by an expensive administration. Some discussion arose over framing a remit for the Counties' Conference, but it was eventually decided to leave the matter m abeyance for the Present