THE HIGHWAY BOARDS BILL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 40, 28 October 1871, Page 14

THE HIGHWAY BOARDS BILL.

f Independent.] The Highway Boards Bill is without doubt the measure which will, of . all others, prove to be of the greatest importance of the many under consideration of the General Assembly. The Highway Boards will eventually'become the centre of all political life and activity, and it is desirable that the principles of which they are the exponents should be understood. It is admitted on all hands that it is desirable that local superintendence of rating for the construction and maintenance of district roads should be encouraged, but there exist grave doubts as to the advisability of requiring districts to construct or maintain main roads, which are of greater interest to the whole country than to the particular localities through which such roads happen to pass. The most important consideration, however, to be taken into account is the extended power of rating granted to the Boards, and more especially the fact that by this extended power, pastoral or other waste lands of the Crown will become subject to taxation. This is a subject which has so many aspects that it is worth seiious consideration It must be admitted os a general principle, that those persons who receive benefit from the improvements made should be taxed as nearly as possible in proportion to the benefit they receive. Now we may admit that a freeholder has an interest in a main line of road exactly to the extent to which he is benefited by its rendering his land accessible ; but it would seem absurd that, simply because a heavy traffic passes from any one centre of population towards a port, purely for their mutual benefit, the district from and to which the traffic passes should Jiave to bear the whole burden of the construction and maintenance of the road which renders that traffic possible. It is evident that main line roads are matters which concern the body politic as much as, or more than, the district which may be formed into a Highway Board. As far as district roads are concerned, it is right, no doubt, that the district should bear the costs in full of their construction and maintenance, such roads being for their exclusive benefit ; the only question, therefore, with regard to them is as to the manner of rating. The present proposition seems a grasp at the first expedient which presents itself, without any due consideration of the effect, or of the principle involved in the taxing of Crown or pastoral lands. Now, these lands are held under various tenures. There are some pastoral lands held on a tenure nearly equivalent to a

freehold tenure, whilst others are held on such an unstable tenure as to be liable any day to extinction. Therefore it is manifestly not fair that taxation should bear on the holders of these lands as if they occupied equal positions. We take it as granted that it is desirable that all lands should bear taxation for construction of roads, whether they be in Government hands or in private hands, as the increased value obtained is equal, but as the benefit is to the land in permanency, it is the landlords on whom the taxation should fall for construction. But for maintenance of roads it cannot be doubted but that the tenant or occupier is the one on whom such taxation should fall. The tenant makes use of the roads, and renders their maintenance necessary. We submit, therefore, that the whole of the lands in a highway road board district, whether Crown or private, should be subject to an equal rating, but the tax for construction should be levied separately from that for maintenance. We venture to suggest, for the consideration of the Government, that private lands should pay the construction rate, and that the Government, instead of making contributions towards road boards, as at present proposed, should contribute its fair ratio and be allowed by act to charge the tenants of the Crown annually, in addition to their rents, interest on the money so contributed, that for maintenance a rate should be taken as proposed by the Highway Boards Bill,and that the tenants of the Crown shall be required to pay for construction the fair proportion which the nature of their tenancy requires. The Grown receives a direct benefit in return for its contributions in the increased value of its lands. It would be wise to do away with the scramble for money amongst different highway boards, and that the money should simply he distributed according to a principle well understood and founded upon justice. We hope that the Legislative Council will take into consideration the suggestions which we have thought it our duty to make. In making those suggestions we have been influenced only by a desire that the Highway Boards Bill, now before the Upper House, should he as far as it is possible, entirely fair to all classes, and of the greatest general utility. In thus criticising freely one of the Government measures we hope it will not be to-day telegraphed throughout the colony that we have gone over to the Opposition. That this warning is not unnecessary will be evident from recent telegrams sent from Wellington. One of them occasioned no little excitement and alarm in the city of Dunedin on the day of the budget. It was to the effect that the Independent had given in a leader that morning a quasimini sterial utterance cu the necessity for an income tax, and warned the Assembly not too hastily to reject any proposal for its imposition. Another telegram lately informed the public of New Zealand of the interesting and important fact that the Independent did not report Mr Stafford’s speech announcing the formation of an Opposition, leaving the inference that it was such a heavy blow to the Ministry that its omission was owing to the very opposite of the real reason, namely, our anxiety to do it full justice by giving it in the next issue in the shape of a verbatim report, extended from the notes which our reporter was specially instructed to take. We might feel flattered by the importance attached to our utterances shown by such telegrams, were it not that they imply that in ourconduct as journalists we are influenced by any other than our own notions of what is proper or expedient, and that Ministers are in any sense committed by or responsible for our utterances. This disclaimer is the more necessary, as we observe oui remarks yesterday on Mr Fox’s affidavit have been erroneously ascribed to the lion, gentleman himself. As we said lately, the Ministry is composed of fallible men, and we claim the fullest right and liberty to criticise both their actions and their measures whenever they appear to us open to any exception. This Highways Bill does seem to us capable of improvement in the direction we have indicated, and we care not, except for their chance of being carried, whether the amendments we have now suggested meet with the approval or disapproval of the Government.