TRACTION ENGINES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5503, 2 March 1896, Page 4

TRACTION ENGINES.

A conference of the Levels and Geraldine County Councils, to consider the. provisions of a by-law licensing traction engines and vehicles plying for hire in the two counties, was held at Timaru on Saturday. There were eleven members present, and Mr J. Talbofc, Chairman of the Geraldine Council, presided. A draft by-law was submitted and formed the basis of the discussion. The Chairman objected to the use of traction, engines for haulage purposes as , destructive to roads and bridges and a danger and annoyance to the general travelling public. A distinction should be made between engines used for haulage and those used for threshing and similar purposes, Mr Mcc said that traction engines had been a benefit to farmers and graziers by reducing rates of rail carriage. He denied that they injured the roads more than teams carting the same quantities of produce would do. Mr Fuller remarked that the ratepayers must make provision for traction engines for threshing purposesi as they had become a necessity of agriculture, but the hauling engine was not. After discussion, the proposed provisions for licensing team carters for hire were struck out; the annual license fee for traction engines used only to draw threshing and other plant about was fixed at £1 Is, and the fee for hauling engines at .£2O, for each county. The fee for passenger coaches was fixed at <£l Is. A clause was adopted requiring tractionengine owners to enter into a bond, with sureties if required, for the payment of any special damage done to road or bridge by their engines. The conference unanimously decided to draw the attention of the railway authorities to the fact that considerable quantities of wool and grain are forwarded to Timaru by road engines, travelling over roads running alongside the railway lines, and to request that the rates of freight on the railways might be reduced sufficiently to stop the traffic.