NO. 60 HIGHWAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 10 April 1937, Page 8

NO. 60 HIGHWAY.

COUNCIL’S BURDEN. Drawing attention to the expenditure of loan money to the extent of nearly £IOO,OOO on the sealing of roads which have now been taken over as State highways (while the indebtedness is still a county responsibility), the Horowhenua County Council have represented to the Main Highways Board that special consideration should be due in respect of the charge for reconstructing and sealing a length of four miles, not yet a State highway, from Makerua northward to the lvairanga county boundary, on No. 60 highway. The board recently offered the same terms as those given the Kairanga County Council in respect of their portion of the No. 60 highway. Those conditions were that the formation of the road would be free of cost to the council, which would be required to find a quarter of the cost of metalling and sealing. A reply to the latest communication from the Horowhenua County Council was before the monthly meeting of the latter yesterday and in it the Highways Board stated that it had decided to take no action as to the representations. The letter proceeded: “It is noted that the council has again drawn attention to the construction work carried out oh highways in previous years under a lesser subsidy than is now usually granted. The board is, however, bound to take into consideration the special assistance extended to the Horowhenua County Council in recent years by reason of the fact that its highways construction programme was carried out in the early years of the board’s administration and such recent special assistance would not have been granted otherwise.” The board considered that the terms previously outlined were very favourable from the council’s standpoint. The chairman (Cr. G. A. Monk) did not agree with the writer of the letter (Mr J. Wood, the chairman of the board). Personally, he thought Mr Wood knew better. The question of increased subsidies had been brought about in the following manner. The speaker had attended a meeting of the district council in Palmerston North and had found that subsidies of £3 for £1 were being thrown about to local bodies doing road construction work next towns having a population of 6000 persons or over. It had been only because the council had “gone on strike” that they had been able to secure a better subsidy than £ for £. That was the generous treatment talked about to-day. Ho did not desire to go over the whole matter again, but the position was that the council had raised approximately £IOO,OOO on loan for the purpose of road construction, and all but a few hundred pounds o‘ that had been spent. No matter what the subsidy had been that sum had now gone. He would have doubted that there was any local body in the Dominion wherein all the good roads would be taken over as State highways and the rest left in the hands of the local body, but that had happened in the Horowhenua County, where there was left four miles of a road which would probably be a State highway, not yet sealed, on the county’s hands. Ihe Tokomaru River bridge would have to be rebuilt. That was a very large matter, and if the Highways Board were going to stick to their statements the council would just have to find their share of the cost. The engineer (Mr J. T. M. Brewster) had emphasised that the bridge was at the end of its period of usefulness. Any future representations to the Highways Board would have to be made personally. He suggested that the council ask if a deputation might wait on the board in Wellington or interview members of the board if they were passing through the county. . It was decided to follow the chairman’s suggestion.