MAIN HIGHWAYS BOARD

Southland Times, Issue 21194, 22 September 1930, Page 8

MAIN HIGHWAYS BOARD

STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, September 20. At a meeting of the Main Highways Board it was reported that as a result of the board’s decision in March to ask the district highways councils to submit recommendations for the board’s consideration, the district councils submitted recommendations for the declaration of nearly 1300 miles of additional roads. The board confined the review to special cases only and as a result will submit recommendations to the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. W. B. Taverner), involving only an adritional 150 miles. The statement of accounts submitted to the meeting showed that the revenue for the five months ending August 31 was £821,883, being from tyre tax £42,546, motor registration and annual license fees £322,226 and petrol tax £447,111. The expenditure against this is £330,000 on general works, together with miscellaneous expenses amounting to £160,000, which includes the payment of a subsidy on rates to local authorities now chargeable to the Main Highways Fund in accordance with the Finance Act recently brought into force. Liabilities outstanding at the end of the period amounted to £430,000. Expenditure on construction works for five months was £363,000, while liabilities outstanding at the end of August amounted to £314,000. Proposals were approved for the reconstruction and surfacing of the East Coast road from Gisborne northward and tenders will shortly be called for this work.