ARTERIAL ROADS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10897, 11 May 1921, Page 5

ARTERIAL ROADS

MOTOR TAX PROPQSAI*. . TOUU-GA.TES CONDEMN ED. The question of the imposition of a i motor tax for the maintenance of arterial roads was raised by Mr D. A. fidwai49 ‘at 'tile monthly meeting or the Central Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon. Mr A. L. Hunt presided. Motor traffic, said Mar Watkins, was to be the mam road traffic the future, and demanded good roads. The roads of the Dominion, with the exception of the tar-sealed roads or Taranaki, were unsnited to the needs of the future. The best American experts commended the use of bituminous sealed roads to counteract the “spread” of road material caused by motor traffic. Construction and upkeep wae the next necessity. Tar-seal-ed roads coat £l6O per mile, as against £3OO for macadamised roads. He therefore moved: 1 ‘That this chamber is convinced that properly constructed and maintained roads are inseparable from the economic welfare of the Dominion, and, as motor traffic will be the road traffio of the' immediate future, an equitable motor tax should be imposed, and the proceeds therefrom applied towards the upkeep of main arterial roads; that the method of raising revenue from toll-gates is ineffective, obsolete, and unduly harass“fir H. 9. Hart seconded the resol u-

tion. Mr W. T. Cotton supported a universal wheel-tax. The resolution was agreed to. A further motion hy Mr Edwards, that the Government be asked to formulate a general scheme of road construction, for submission to local bodies, was agreed to.