ROADING COSTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21250, 2 August 1932, Page 8

ROADING COSTS

Roading costs and tho uniform systemisation of costing, roading standards fixed by traffic requirements and all matters related thereto arc being examined by expert committees set up by a conference attended by representatives of the Public Works, Transport and Audit Departments, the Main Highways Board and civil engineers' and county clerks' societies. The task is of the highest importance, but of much greater importance will bo the application of the system by all authorities. In the past, particularly during the past decade, thore has been colossal waste and extravagance on roading, and the chief-offender has been the Public Works Department itself. It is apparent by comparison with the amount of work done by many groups of relief workers who have no particular incentive, that the department has accepted a ridiculously low standard of output from its employees. Other costs have been on the same extravagant scale. In many cases minor roads have been constructed to a standard far beyond the reasonable requirements of the district they serve, while others of greater importance have been neglected. Two striking illustrations were recently given by the chairman of the Hokianga County Council. A first-class road had been built through a barren area at a cost of £27,000, which he described as an "utter waste," the sum being more than enough to have bought the district. In the other case, a "magnificent public thoroughfare" had been constructed to give accesß

to two or three farms whett all 6he council wanted was a nine-foot track. This sort of thing is indicated by the quotation of Mr. H. F. Toogood, the Main Highways Board engineer, that "our present method of carrying out road improvements was to follow natural or artificially inspired impulse to get things done and sit down afterwards and scratch our heads to discover their true economical value." Year after year taxation has been poured by a reckless hand into road works, with little regard to the standard of traffic to be carried and as little consideration for actual costs. Times were good and the country was supposed to have a limitless capacity to pay. There is, unfortunately, no record of the State's share of the cost of roading over a period of years, but it is quite safe to say that this expenditure has imposed as great a burden as the railways. It has not given the country an asset worth anything approaching the cost. It iB to be hoped that the investigations of the experts will be more than an academic quest. The whole system must be reformed.