UPKEEP OF HIGHWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18551, 8 November 1923, Page 10

UPKEEP OF HIGHWAYS.

MAKING LORRIES PAY.

THE MINISTER'S POLICY.

In an address at Temuka, the Hon. J. G. Cartes, Minister for Public Works, referred to the Highways Act. There were those, he said, who considered the Act useless, but ho was not among them; and he was loking forward to an important conference as soon as the district boards were set up, so that practical steps could be taken to give better roads. It might he possible to cut out some of the non-paying branch railway lines, and provide good roads in their stead, In the future those who used the roads would have to pay for them. And it wits unreasonable to compare the earnings of the railways, which cost £40,000,000, with motor-lorries, which had a free track on the roads. A Bill was now being prepared, and when it was completed ho intended to call a meeting of representatives of borough and county councils, to discuss it. Local bodies had extraordinary powers in New Zealand, and he proposed to get something effective into this Bill so that the owners of motor-lorries would have to pay for their use of the roads.

UNIFORM by-laws wanted.

POINT RAISED IN NORTH.

[•Y TKLEORAFH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WHANGAREI, Wednesday.

At the meeting of the district council of the No. 1 group (North Auckland) of the Highways Board, held in Whangarei yesterday, Mr. F. Hodgson, the Rodney County representative, asked if it would be possible to have a set of by-laws for traffic control framed that would apply to the whole of the North Auckland area. It was decided, however, that at the present time it would be unwise to discuss the matter, but it was generally conceded that the query bore upon an important point of the council's functions.