CORRESPONDENCE. COUNTY ROADS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 117, 14 April 1930, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

COUNTY ROADS.

(To the Editor.) ' Sir, —In a letter in the columns of your issue of the 10th instant Cr Small lias attempted to justify the words over which I took him to task. I am afraid, however, that he has wandered far from the main point at issue. The information he gives concerning the inner . workings of the Kairanga County Council is, no doubt, very interesting. But. the main highways fund, as I understand it, has been created at the expense of the motorist to give him good'roads where he travels most, and not to subsidise individual counties or ridings whose main roads are already good until all other main roads have been attended to. Surely Cr. Small does not think we can believe that there is more traffic between Bunnythorpe and Kairanga than there is between Palmerston North, Wellington and intermediate towns and districts, even if part of that traffic does go through Foxton. I cannot conceive what such a great volume of traffic would be doing on the Bunnytliorpe-Kair.anga Road. Certainly, I have never noticed much traffic on that road. I understand that the Kairanga County Council some time ago took a tally of the traffic, on the Main ,South Road, and if the results are available to Cr. Small I am sure they v ill convince him whuh of the two roads is the more used. In his letter Cr. Small says: “I know the main road at Fitzherbert is in a far better condition than the BunnythorpeRongotea Road,” yet in almost the same sentence he has said: “it is a question. . . which of the two roads is the worst to travel on by car to-day.” Surely this is inconsistent. In any case those of your numerous readers who have travelled over both roads will no doubt agree with me. As regards the main highways fund, Cr. Small appears to have the impression that because the county pays the fund —which bo it remembered was created primarily for the community at large —itho sum of £4OOO per' year, the fund is under an obligation to the county. What, then, must he consider the obligation.of theVfund to the borough of Palmerston North which •must pay at least four or five times as much in petrol.taxes as does the'Kairanga County. And yet how much does the Main Highways Board spend in this borough? In conclusion lam very glad to hear, on Cr. Small's assurance, that the Main South Road is to be attended to soon. —I am, etc., PRO BONO PUBLICO.