MAIN HIGHWAYS ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18471, 7 August 1923, Page 8

MAIN HIGHWAYS ACT.

ITS EFFECT ON COUNTIES. SUBJECT FOR CONFERENCE. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] /WELLINGTON. Monday, i The Main Highways Act .and its possible effect on the revenue :of county councils will be one of the chief topics at the annual conference of the New Zealand Counties' Association, which will be held here this week. Numerous remits, chiefly from the South Island, have already been received. The South Island local authorities' desire for a separate board, and the question of the revenue to be drawn from county funds as compared with that from the tyre tax, are likely to be discussed. , A financial and statistical review of the effect of the Act on * county councils has been prepared; by the Southland Council. After a ■ number of tallies taken of the traffic on one of the main 'toads over a considerable period, it finds that the tonnage of motor-driyen vehicles is practically double the sum of all other traffic. With an estimated annual \ expenditure of £1,600,000, the local bodies' contributions would, says the county engineer, be £900,000, compared with £500,000 provided by the tyro tax. In the face of the traffic results :in • Southland; the amounts wero considered entirely out of proportion. ;; He considered the local ; bodies' : share should not exceed; one-fourth of • the ; tyre •■ tax, based on . its general rate of. last year.