WILL ROAD BOARDS DISAPPEAR?

Opunake Times, Volume LVV, Issue 3675, 19 October 1923, Page 2

WILL ROAD BOARDS DISAPPEAR?

One result likely to foilow the operation of the Main Highways Act is the possibility of the disappearance of road boards by their mergence in county councils. There are no fewer than nine road boards in the Ashburton County, and a conference was held recently to consider the merging ot their affairs with the county coun cil. Very naturally there were conflicting views expressed, some of the speakers asserting that the road boards had rendered, and were rendering, admirable and economical service On the other hand, it was stated that' since road boards were abolished in the adjoining county, Geraldine, the roads in outlying districts had received attention that they had not received under the road boards. In addition to affirming that the Ashburton County should be a unit by itself under the Main Highways Act, it was decided that the County Council should take steps to ascertain, by means of petitions, the opinion of the ratepayers on the suggested abolition of road boards. Ashburton County is territorially. one of the largest in the Dominion, its area being over 2,540 square miles, a shade larger than East Taupo (2,470 square miles), the largest North Island County. It is just a question whether, assuming that road districts are abolished in the Ashbur.on County, it would not be in the interests of the ratepayers if the present county was divided into two or more counties.