ROAD BOARDS PASSING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20465, 17 January 1930, Page 14

ROAD BOARDS PASSING.

.ONLY SEVENTEEN NOW LEFT.

AUCKLAND THE STRONGHOLD.

TREND TOWARD, BOROUGHS. ' ' The effort being, made to constitute One Tree Hill a borough calls attention to [hat rapidly vanishing class of loqal authority—the road, district. In 1883 there were as many as 320 road districts scattered throughout the Dominion; to day there are only 17 out of the 686 local bodies functioning and every year sees the number dwindle. ; ,

For reasons which it would be difficult to discover, the road board has had itsgreatest. vogue in the Auckland Province and to-day, when this form of authority is on tho verge of disappearing altogether, it clings desperately to the Auckland Isthmus, its last remaining stronghold. Tho three road districts in Greater Auckland (One Tree Hill, Mount Roskill and Mount Wellington) are easily the most important road districts left in Now Zealand. Ono Tree Hill lias the largest rateable capital value, £2,800,000, Mount. Hutt, in Ashburton County, coming next with £2.500,000.

Together, the three Auckland road boards spend more and earn more than .all tho othor road in New Zealand put togother, their combined 'annual expenditure being £IBO,OOO, as against £53.000 spent by the othor 14 road boards combined, and thoir joint receipts hoinji £170,000, compared with the £50,000 received by all tho others. The sum of £BSOO is spent annually on employees' wages in One Tree Hill, and £BIOO in Mount Roskill, whereas none of the others spends more than £2OOO a year in this way. The road board's essential function was the construction and upkeep of roads in tho early days of colonisation. They came into being with the passing of the Highways Act by tho Provincial Legislature of Auckland in 1862,' under which any district could bo constituted a road dis trict on memorial by the residents. A more uniform plan for tho colony was adopted by an Act of tho General Assembly in 1882. But with the growth of population and increasing means of communication the road district lias become more and more obsolete, and its disappearance has been aided by the recognition that a reduction rather than a multiplication of local bodies is more desirable in the public intorcst. There are those who prophesy the early extinction of this form of authority altogether. In Auckland the movement fbr displacement has been very active in recent years. The Toint Chevalier Road district was incorporated in the city in December, 1920, and in 1927 the Tamaki and Orakei road districts followed suit. To-day only three remain, not counting the two small island road districts, bf Ostend and Orapiu.