ROAD SUBSIDIES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 300, 18 December 1931, Page 9

ROAD SUBSIDIES.

Increase has Proved Very Beneficial. HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT. (Special to the ” Star.”) WELLINGTON, December 18. During the current year the Main Highways Board is assisting county councils by making a substantial increase in the subsidy payable on maintenance work on their roads. The good result of this system was apparent at the board’s recent meeting when the Clutha County reported that as a consequence of the larger amount of subsidy received from the Main Highway funds, it would hava available for further work a fairly substantial sum, which it proposed to utilise in additional maintenance expenditure to bring the county roads up to a higher standard. The county’s request for a subsidy on this expenditure was agreed to.

In order to provide employment for county employees, several local authorities in the Taranaki district requested the board to authorise carrying out maintenance work by day labour. The an-olications were agreed to, and under this system it is intended to widen the bituminised surface of the Normanby-Manaia-Egmont road in the Hawera county, and on a road in the Patea County, while the Eltham County will widen the sealing coat on the ElthamOpunake highway. Sealing work on Betts Hill, on the Lepperton Junction, Hawera, via Opunake highway, is also to be carried out by day labour.