North Auckland Age. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED “The Mangonui County Times” and “The Bay of Islands Times ” MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1908. The Roads Department

Northland Age, Volume V, Issue 16, 7 December 1908, Page 4

North Auckland Age. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED “The Mangonui County Times” and “The Bay of Islands Times ”

MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1908. The Roads Department

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If there be some Government De pertinents which are useless and which cause serious waste of public money there is at least one which is of inestimable value to the back-block settler and that is the Roads Department. AVe do not say for one moment that this department is perfect, but we are of opinion that as things be it is essential to the advancement of the Dominion. It may be that it is a pity that there is any need for

Government direction of our road r works but as the County Councils are i ever in financial difficulties—as they i must be until the long promised 1 “ assured finance ” is granred by the t Government—it is as well that there < is a Government Depattment which i has its being for the sole purpose of 1 forwarding the back-block roads, i Without such a department it is j quite likely that ,an unthinking Government would conveniently forget that exdenditure on road work is a necessity to the develodment of the country. In a great measure we are able to uphold the work of the Roads Department but wherein it clashes with County management we have before now had occasion to tilt at it. We know that most of the work done under the supervision of the Road Inspectors is good, solid, reliable work; but either the Department has too much power or too little. To the County Councils has been delegated the upkeep of the main roads and yet whenever Government Grants are to be distributed the Department seems to have such influence as to prevent the Local Bodies from getting their fair share ot votes. It the main roads were under the control of the Department this would be understandable but as at present this departmental influence tends to starving the main roads to the end that experimental side tracks may benefit. To arrive at a fair and just method of dividing the monies voted for expenditure on road work—as between the Counties and the Roads Department —would appear to be a difficult matter but we venture the opinion that the difficulty is more apparent than real. In the first place the Government should take over the main arterial roads. But as this seems as far from the desire of the Government as it is that of the Local Bodies we must base any estimate of the adjustment between the Counties and the Department on the assumption that the former are to be entirely responsible for the maintenance of the chief highways. This being so at least a clear half of all monies voted for road work should be paid into the funds of the Local Bodies; not ear-marked for expenditure on specified roads or parts of roads but for disbursement by .the Counties in such manner as might be thought fit. This may seem a somewhat surprising suggestion but we are strong in the belief that the present system of grants—catch vote grants, ear marked to secure the support of electors in certain localities—is the cause of much patchwork and of wasteful expenditure. To further assist the Counties in their work of making the main roads passable the f Interference Department—the Crown Lands Board it is usually called—should not be permitted any control of “ Timber Halves ” and these “ Halves,” which were originally promised to the Local Bodies as ( grants of right, should be given as they were promised as subsidies free ot all restriction. With such an arrangement, as to the expenditure of Government road votes there might be some hope for the main roads and a fair expenditure on those side tracks which appear now-a-days to find such favour in the eyes of the Roads Department. The last Estimates gave cause for much comment and serious objection, not so much on account of the total of the amounts voted as because of the localities favored and we have no doubt that the allocation of these monies was entirely due to the representations of the Roads Department. In order to show how unpopular were these allotments it is sufficient to say that the Estimates went very near to securing the return of an Oppositionist at the election and that the present Member, but for great personal influence being brought to bear, would have gone perilously close to defeat had the electors studied the votes a little more closely. The Estimates were framed at the instance and on the direction of the Roads Department and we by no means blame its officers for doing their best for the departmental requirements. But the views of Government officials and the public are not always in agreement and, while admitting that the Department does excellent work and may have a most excellent scheme of road construction, we think that it has too great a tendency to thrust too much upon the overburdened County Councils. There was clear indication in the last Estimates that the main roads might drift in order that departmental schemes might flourish. And we would have it understood that the main roads should be first and that so long as these are under the control of the Local Bodies the ideas and requirements of the Roads Department must be subservient to the wishes of the people as voiced by the County Councils, in fact that under present conditions the Department must be in all things second to the Councils. In this district the Officer of the Roads Department is ever ready to assist the County Council and his advice and experience are always available, a state of things which is of manifest value to the public and the ratepayers. Nevertheless we would wish to see a yet clearer understanding between the Department and the County. And that understanding should be in the direction of greater

responsibility for the state of the mam roads being upon the Department. If the chief road votes are to be expended under the supervision of the Department then before any estimates or recommendations are made by its officers a consultation between the responsible local officer and the County Council should take place and it should be incumbent upon that officer to consider County finance as much as, if not more than, the scheme of road-making which, for the time being, is before him as a matter of departmental urgency. Plainly the Roads Department is excellent in its work. Yet it is necessary that greater consideration should be given to the Local Bodies and to the relief of the ratepayer. This rather than to systematic exploitation of the Counties for maintenance of main roads and excessive expenditure on the opening up of new ronds—to benefit only the few who are settling or likely to take up land off the lines of general traffic. Most certainly the main roads should come first for no matter how good the side tracks may be perfect main roads must be the desideratum of all.