THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. WEDNESDAY JUNE 26, 1946. Maintenance Of Northland Roads

Northern Advocate, 26 June 1946, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. WEDNESDAY JUNE 26, 1946. Maintenance Of Northland Roads

While it may be regarded as a matter for congratulation that the Dominica's roads have come so well out of a period of six years of war, which dislocated maintenance work of all descriptions in every branch of activity, it is nevertheless apparent that a good deal of road surface deterioration has occurred. That was to be expected. Failure to maintain property of any kind is not good policy, for the failure inevitably entails greater expense when settling day comes than would have been necessary if repairs had been made regularly as required. This is the position in which local bodies in the No 1 District Highways Council’s area find themselves today. The question is discussed in the annual report presented at the council's annual meeting held in Whangarei this morning.

The council’s engineer, while realising that conditions throughout the past summer rendered most difficult the task of local bodies in maintaining macadamised surfaces, said it was disappointing to note that in some instances the amount of subsidy lifted during the oast financial year was barely 50 per cent of the amount voted for maintenance, while the average lifted over the whole district was 04.9 per cent. This obviously will make heavier expenditure necessary during the coming year, for in addition to meeting the current maintenance demands, which are as constant as the ebb and flow of the tide, arrears must be dealt with. The highways engineer therefore appeals to local bodies to make every endeavour to spend all maintenance moneys provided. This appeal is likely to be answered, for the main cause of failure to carry out all necessary maintenance work during the war years has either disappeared or weakened.

The trouble has been not a matter of lack of finance, though that may not be the case to the same extent in the Mangonui County, where refusal to levy a rate for hospital

purposes interfered with funds available for road maintenance. The real trouble has been lack of road metal contractors and lorries, as a result of the war, and the fact that prices tendered became abnormally high, rising to 17/6 a yard as compared with round about 10/- to 11/- a yard before the war. The ending of the war and the availability of trucks and contractors have relieved the situation, arid local bodies believe they will now be able to carry out maintenance work more cheaply than during a period when they had to choose between paying high prices to the few contractors available and allowing roads to deteriorate.

If this easing of the situation eventuates, it may be expected that local bodies will make a big effort to catch up on arrears and provide the good roads which the confidently anticipated increase of traffic in Northland will make indispensable. This, of course, is more easily said than done, for, as will be gathered from perusal of the report of the highways board’s engineer, and discussion by board members, great leeway must be made up. The authorities are evidently awake to the vital need for restoration of the transport facilities of Northland to be put in hand without further delay, and it may be justifiably urged that the state should come to the assistance of the local bodies to maximum extent, not only in respect of main highways but of all feeder and other roads which have suffered by 0 combination of unfortuitous circumstances. This is a matter which is truly of national importance, for the possibilities of advancement of settlement and of primary production in the territory are of great magnitude. These, however, call for the provision of transport and other amenities required to assist the industry and enterprise of the people who are laying the foundations of future development of Northland.