AUSTRALIAN HIGHWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19321, 7 May 1926, Page 15

AUSTRALIAN HIGHWAYS.

THE MAIN ROADS POLICY. NEW SOUTH WALES, PROBLEMS. [FROM OtIR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY. April 29. The Main Roads Board, the creation of the Fuller Nationalist Government, is finding its path, like some of the roads with which it is confronted, a little rough. While it was called into being with the approval of at 'least 300 out. of the 320 councils in the State, and while its first 12 months' work has met with a chorus of approval, the. Labour Government does not appear to be too kindly disposed toward it. A number of the councils also have a grievance against tiie system under which the board works. When Parliament passed the Act and created all the machinery for a developmental roads fund the local bodies were all happy, in the belief that they had got rid of their responsibilities. Unfortunately, however, neither the present Government nor the last one placed any money at the disposal of the hoard for use upon such roads. Except in the case of roads which are formed in conjunction with the Federal Government, the board is not able to go into districts where there is no main road. Up till the present the New South Wales practice has been exactly the opposite to that in Victoria. In that State the board is a Country Roads Board, not, a .Main Roads Board, and the biggest expenditure has been on developmental roads. The feelings can therefore be imagined of councils which have no main roads within their boundaries, for the board cannot at present spend any money in the area. There might be, for example, 1000 motor-car owners in a district paving approximately £6OOO a year in motor fees, into the board's funds. Obviously, there is not much jubilation in the district at the fac£ that the moneyis taken and spent upon roads probably hundreds of miles away.