PROVISION OF HIGHWAYS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17606, 23 October 1931, Page 5

PROVISION OF HIGHWAYS

“THE USEES SHOULD PAY” PETITION TO PARLIAMENT FARMERS SEEK DERATING (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Over 6000 signatures are attached to a petition presented in tho House yesterday and referred direct to the Highways Finance Committee, which has been specially set up to consider highways finance and the official report on petrol costs in New Zealand. The petition has two objectives: (1) That agricultural and pastoral land be completely freed from rates for loading purposes, and (2) that the users of roads shall be required to pay for the services which the roads render to them. In support of these requests the petitioners declare that the present system of rating agricultural lands for making and maintaining roads has never been fair in its incidence, as the burden was imposed regardless of the benefit to ratepayers. Mechanical transport has required greatly improved surfaces and heavier maintenance costs, and though the prices of primary products are less than before the war, the burden of loading rates is about three times that prior to the war. The completion of good main roads has made it possible for city vehicles to come upon and destroy country roads, while the use of main roads is .now largely of a luxury nature. It is contended by the petitioners that their class maintains more than threequarters of the rural roads of the Dominion besides contributing heavily to the maintenance of main, highways. PETROL TAX ALLOCATION

It is stated “that the allocation of the benzine tax produces concrete and bituminised roads in the vicinity of large centres; that the cost of running mechanical transport is thereby reduced, and that this much more than recompenses tho users of such roads for the taxation they pay? whereas on poor roads the consumption of petrol, wear and tear of tyres, and upkeep of vehicles render the taxation much heavier in actuality, and make motor taxation, apart from rates, a real burden.”

The statement is made that the expenditure of £108,000,(XX) on roads in the past is a free gift to mechanical transport and gives an unfair advantage to it against the railways, which are required to pay interest on the cost of construction. The interest and sinking fund on special reading loans, states the petition, have become < an intolerable burden in many districts. Relieving mechanical transport of its just burden has resulted in increased railway freights and caused a cessation of railway development and the abandonment of many lines already built, to tho detriment of rural interests.