TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, 6th NOVEMBER, 1936. THE NATIONAL ROAD BILL.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3830, 6 November 1936, Page 6

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, 6th NOVEMBER, 1936. THE NATIONAL ROAD BILL.

RETURNS which find their way in steady procession for presentation to Parliament are sometimes merely formal in their character, but there is a wealth of information in the figures of the Main Highways authorities as embodied in the Transport report. We are informed, for example, that the Dominion’s annual road bill for 1934-35 was £7,271,722 and, after a further detailed analysis as between new and maintenance works, the revenue sources are traced. This discloses:

These are illuminating figures and show how far this Dominion has progressed toward the derating ideal. Local rates, spread over rural and urban areas, comprise 32 per cent, of the road liability, indirect national taxation sources being called upon for the balance. On this phase the Roading Commissioner innocently remarks: “Motor taxation shows a substantial increase! of almost £520,000 over the previous year .... A noticeable feature is that this item is gradually approaching the amount provided by local rates. Whereas the amount expended from local rates in 1930-31 exceeded that from motor taxation by £1,200,000, the excess is now only £390,000.” Another informative set of figures shows how little change has taken place in the designation or classification of the highways. We are told:

Thus, without appreciable difference in the administrative channels or in the ratio of national main highways and roads remaining under local body jurisdiction, there has been a marked change in the methods of finance and a steady drift in the incidence of taxation. The change, however, is not without further effect. The Roading Commissioner does not comment on the fact, but it is obvious to everybody who has followed the trend. Just as the channels of taxation are 1 , being shifted to the national sphere, so also is the controlling authority assuming a national instead of a local character. Not so many years ago schemes of riding finance and riding control gave place to county jurisdiction to be followed, almost imperceptibly by still wider schemes of national direction. This, no doubt, is in keeping with the traffic movement which, having so largely nationalised itself, must almost automatically compel acceptance of national roading policy. The processes of derating have begun almost before they were clamoured for—but with them there has developed other equally important processes which, if they do not undermine ideals of local government, limit extensively the scope or operations of the local ' governing bodies. It was not to be expected that the national taxpayer should oe called upon for so large a contribution in national servicing and that local parochialism should hold sway over the destiny of highways. But all the same it is a serious and faircaching influence in the principle of local government which passes unheeded, and it is exceedingly timely to heed the trend. It suggests that larger counties do not mean as false idealism—that roading systems havj so enlarged themselves as to render more extensive administrative coverage desirable and necessary; that, indeed, in the national road bill, is more than a derating ideal but rather a national system for a national service.

Loan expenditure £ 829,796 Local rates - 2,324,969 Unemployment tax 1,105,361 General taxation 1,076,170 Motor taxation 1,935,426

1931 Miles 1936 Miles Main Highways .... . 10,420 11,176 Urban roads 4,055 4,035 Other roads . 35,103 36,947 Total 49,578 52,158