ROAD FUNDS: A CONTRAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20338, 20 August 1929, Page 8

ROAD FUNDS: A CONTRAST.

In reply to deputations asking that the Main Highways Board should assist local bodies in road work done before its subsidies were available, the Minister of Public Works was not very encouraging yesterday. The main question at issue was so much a matter of policy that he could be excused making ready promises, but for reasons that have nothing to do with the substance of his requests, a portion of his answer deserves notice. Mr. Pansom said that the board's programme for this year would absorb not only the whole of its revenue, but all of its accumulated reserve funds. It is welcome news to find that these reserves, which were never intended to grow in the way they have done during past years, are to be applied to their true purpose, that of roadmaking or maintenance. But the chief interest of the Minister's statement lies in its complete contrast with what the Prime Minister said in his recent letter concerning the disposal of highways funds, written to the three non-official members of the board. Sir Joseph Ward said: "The resources of the main highways revenue fund are more than ample to meet current requirements, and accordingly this fund must assist to make good the shortage in other directions." One member of the Cabinet says in effect that the board has more money than it needs, another, who is directly concerned with its operations, says it is working up to the full limit of its income and has made arrangements to utilise all its reserves. The Minister of Public Works contradicts the main excuse the Prime Minister offers for his raid on the road fund. The existence of unexpended balances is the usual excuse for such a raid. It was used by Mr. Winston Churchill when he helped the general revenue from the roads fund. Now, according to Mr. Ransom's statement, the Minister of Finance is making his raid in face of arrangements to dispose, in the legitimate way, of the entire surplus.