MAIN ROAD PROJECTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1039, 11 June 1924, Page 2

MAIN ROAD PROJECTS

QUESTION OF UPKEEP. At yesterday's meeting of the Kairanga County Council the question of main highways was discussed. Cr Small referred to the report of the Main Highways Board which was publish«d in the "Standard" on Thursday last. Road projects approved represent a capital cost of £260,000, including a bitumen highway from Waikanao to Tokomaru, to cost £148,000, of which the board and the local authorities will each pay half the cost. The length of the road will be 46 miles and the width 18 feet. Other items in the report referred to by Cr Small were the eight miles concrete road, costing £63,078, for Auckland, which will Ije paid for by the local bodies and the board, each paying half, and the five-and-a-half miles of bitumen road recently completed in Wellington at a cost of £40,000, the whole of which is being found by a, special tax on Wellington motorists, the board and local bodies paying nothing. Cr Small said that what he wished to know was: What was the- District Highways Board doing? He was a member of that body, a position he wished to relinquish in 'favour of the new chairman of the council (Cr Lancaster) and the board had only held one meeting since its inception. The present position was not satisfactory. Eight miles of concrete roading were to be constructed at Auckland to which the Main Highways Board would contribute half the cost and presumably a third of the maintenance costs. In this district, however, they were being saddled with the whole cost of construction of tho Gorge road which was one of the greatest highways in the country. In regard to the latter it was pointed out that the Kairanga County contributed pro rata 10 per cent., while the Palmerston Morth Borough Council's levy was 27 per cent. Cr Small also referred to the Hutt road, of which much had been heard, and it appeared that, although administered by a board, as in the case of the Gorge road, a special tyre tax was levied on mptorists. A special Act had been passed providing for an annual license fee and the amount thus levied from motorists would be sufficient to meet the cost of upkeep and interest on construction. It was finally decided to request full information from the Highways Board, with a view to ascertaining what assistance would be forthcoming for the roads in the Kairanga County.