MORERE DEVIATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16534, 29 December 1927, Page 7

MORERE DEVIATION

NO HELP FROM PETROL TAX ECONOMIC PROBLEM UNCHANGED No matter how urgently needed the Morcre deviation of the main south road may prove, on investigation, there is not the slightest chance that its construction will be affected by the influx of money resulting from the operation of the petrol a reporter learned to-day. The proceeds of the petrol tax will be administered on a schedule which makes no provision for additional finance for the present high-

ways system, and no appeal for the advancement of works such as the Morere deviation can hope to succeed on the bare argument that the Highways Board will have more money to spend in consequence of the special tax on petrol. This is the effect'of a statement made to-day by Mr. A. Tyndall, chief engineer to the Highways Board, .who is spending a few days in Gisborne.

Tho recent agitation for progress

with the deviation near Morere,. Mr. Tyndall commented, seemed to rest in part on the assumption .that now the petrol tax was to become a fact the Highways Board would have plenty of money available for highways im-

provement. This assumption was . Cjjfoneous, for no portion of the petrol would be applied to exof work on the present syston of highways. The petrol tax money was to be expended on a schedule which would not contemplate such works as tho Morere deviation, and the situation of such works, in tho view of the Highways Board, was exactly tho same as if the special imJost on motor spirit had not been levied, f the Highways Board proceeded with this deviation, it would be simply because it was satisfied that the departure from the old route was justi- - lied on economic grounds. The economic position of all such works had not changed in the least as a result of the levying of the petrol tax, and it was very necessary that this should be'understood by local bodies and others interested in the problems of communication. MANY ANGLES TO PROBLEM - The highways engineer made it clear that as yet no special investigation of the economic side of the Morere deviation had been, made, and that Until that investigation was undertaken the proposal could not bo disposed of. There were many angles to problems of this nature, and the Highways Board liad to tako them all into consideration; a few of the points to be investigated were tho suitability of the present road for the nature of the .traffic, the probable cost of tho deviation as compared with the cost of maintaining the old road to the highways standard, the distance which could be saved by making tho deviation, and the volume and nature of the .traffic which used the road. While some proposals were obviously of the kind which must be deferred in favor of more pressing •work elsewhere, it was not the practice to dismiss consideration of any proposals indefiniteThere was a great mass of work Mmch- had to bo tackled, of course, / and certain details had to wait, especially those affecting roads which were already giving reasonable service to traffic.