TRANSPORT CONTROL

Wairarapa Age, 14 March 1929, Page 5

TRANSPORT CONTROL

MAYOR AT THE N.Z. CARRIERS CONFERENCE. BOROUGHS AND THE HIGHWAY BOARD PETROL TAX ALLOCATIONS Extending a welcome yesterday to delegates attending the New Zealand Master Carriers conference, the Mayor (Mr T. Jordan) dealt interestingly with transport problems and with questions of reading finance. He contended that boroughs with a population of 6,000 or more had good reason to complain of their treatment by the Main Highways Board. The conference .president (Mr E. Smith) introduced Mr Jordan as li Mayor of Masterton, the sunny town of the Waira-

raph. ” Mr. jordan, who was received with applause, said he was very glad to be able to welcome them to the sunny town of Master-ton. Transport, he wont on to observe, was becoming almost a dominant feature of the commercial life of this country. At Wanganui the other de.y, he had heard the Director of Town-planning say that transport seemed to dominate'all his w-ork. The Government had at last recoign.ised the necessity of appointing a Minister of Transport. The first Minister of Transport in this country was a man who used to be a railwayman and it would be interesting to see what came of the appointment. A; good deal had been heard about the

necessity of giving some relief to master earners. There had been quite a lot of discussion on this subject at the Municipal Conference and the master carriers he was addressing woulu have been quite interested in hearing what was said, jinst as ho would be much interested in hearing, if ho had the opportunity. what they had to say about local bodies. Each party had something to learn from the point of view ' c-f the other. ’’You claim that vou. want relief,” added Mr. Jordan, “Very often we, as a borough council.find ourselves at our wit’s end, hardlyf knowing which way to turn over the', increasing expenditure on our roads.”.. iOon the Main Highway Board wasi set up some time ago, he continued, i the boroughs hoped that they were,, going to get some relief from the burden of reading costs, but the Highways Board decided to give no help to boroughs with a ponulntion of 6,060 or 1 more. :

He was not able to see the logic of that at all. W].at was good for a boir- ■ ough of 4.000 was good for one of 1 9,000. As the population of a. borough increased the wear and tear on its roads and the cost of maintaining them ailso increased There were forty miles of roads in Mestertoa, which was the centre of a very large district poawsjing a corresponding amount of traffic. HEAVY TRAFFIC TAXATION. Though it. was claimed that traffic taxation was too heavy, it was apparently not acting as a deterrent to men going into the business. The amount collected in heavy traffic fees in this district, was. increasing from year to year. For the past year, the amount collected, in heavy traffic fees in this town was £1,500, but thia sum was divided between fifteen local bodies. Masterton’s shate was £7OO. Mas-) terton was the only local body between Wellington and Hastings which' had. a traffic inspector on the road. Of the fifteen local bodies which divided up the heavy traffic fes, in this district, Mastertou alone got no assistance from the Main Highway® Board. Something like £4,000 was collected annually in motor registration fees by the Masterton Post Office, but the town got none of that. THE PETROL TAX. When the petrol tax came in, they thought they were all night, but all they got was a meagre allocation of eight pc cent In Masterton’s case this meant £730. which was a very welcome addition co their finances, but in justice to boroughs which got nothing 1 from the Highways Board, the amount of petro] tax money they received might very well be increased. ' The Municipal Conference at its meet- ’ ing at Wanganui had decided to ask

for 16 per cent, of the petrol tax for these boroughs, And he thought the request was reasonable COLLECTION OF FEES In the early lays of motor transport, Mr. Jordan went on to observe, some men went out on to the roads to “get rich quick.” In some cases they were encouraged by motor firms jyhich sold them vehicles at second or thirty-sec-ond hand. He knew of men who bad given up good jobs to go on the road us motor carriers and had ended up in. the bankruptcy court. The.j were a number of recent eases in which heavy liabilities were set against negligible .‘•sects. It was not right that local bodies should be asked to issue licenses to men who were not in a position to pay their heavy traffic fees. The Act empowered them to give nine months’ ere lit, but his opinion was that a man who had not sufficient capital ‘o nay his fees in three months should not be granted a license. Ho was here oxpres sing his own opinion and not speaking for hi.s council. A delegate: “What would be your remedy? ” Mt. Jordan: “Cancel the Incense if the fee® sre not paid within three month * from the beginning of the year.” (Hear, bear). Ho was pleased to say that the amount of Txul debts in respect of heavy traffic foes in Masterton last year was only about £lO, hut in other years they had not been ■so forrunato. Mr. Jordan wont on to state that he thought a great deal aof good might come out of a conference between reprosmtativs of local bodies, carriers and the Government. Such n conference had been projected, hut ho did not know whthOr it would come off now i that the Transport Board was being sot up. He hoped tho.t the conference would be held in the near future.. He was one of the four delegates appointed by the- Municipal Conference to attend it. hut it depended upon r. certain contingency in ♦'no near future whether or not he would be available to do so. ' In concluding, Mr. Jordan said he I hoped the delegates would take away

recollection* of tlcir stay in s Masterton. (Applause), t HEAVY TAXATION. Z In thanking the Mayor for hi® edt dress, the president (Mr. E. Smith) ? said he did not quite agree with all ■ that Mr. Jordan had said in regard to > carriers. The men there that day were qnot of the “get rich quick” type. Iftr. dSmith. went on to state that he recog- ■ nised that some carriers were not ori ganised as they .‘hould be, and that 5 uifficulties arose in this way from the r point of view of local bodies. As a • body, however, carriers wore taxed : more heavily than any other section of the community on their capital \xaveelcd- It worked out at five per cent., ; and sometimes they were paying in taxation “depreciation on what they had not got”. As an organised body, i ®aid Mr. Smith, they welcomed traffic inspectors. Their federation never supported overloading, over-speeding, core•jlos9»e«w or lack of courtesy on the road [of any kind whatever. They desired to co-operate with local bodies, and iyecognised that they were only elevating their operating costa by' running over reads that, they were destroying. ROADING FINANCE. It was considered by the master carriers that where a highway ran through a borough, that borough should got 'the -same amount pro rata from the Highway® Board as was given to counties. The system under which counties got subsidies of £3 for £1 and £2 for £1 and boroughs with a population of 6,000 or more got nothing was unfair. The bulk of the traffic was in or near populated areas and busanit** centres. That was where they wanted good roads. The master carriers thought the tax should l>o spent where it was collected. Mr. Smith went rm to contend thut the community could not do without the services of the heavy moor xehicle. The vital importance of motor transport had been very fully demonstrated on t the occasion of (railway strikes and at other times. iThere were two side* to every question. He hipcd the suggested conference ■would be held. He had no doubt that if the local bodies understood the position of the master carriers a» well as the latter understood it ihenwelvos, the fight between the local bodies, and heavy traffic would ceaee. Mr. Jordan: “I don’t call it a fight. I think it is that we don’t understand each other.”

Mr Smith said their aim was to get to closer grips with the local bodies and to co-ordinate their methods of transport. While they were to make profits, they desired, to give the best possible service to the eommunity. (Applause). Mr Jordan said that during the last three or four years, Mawberton had spent nearly one-third of its general rate on work on the roads. Mr Smith: “That is a very good thing.” Mr Jordan said there was a constant outcry from those who were not netting their streets surfaced. Mr Smith: “Eventually you wil’ eve thousands of pounds.” Mr Jordan observed that it was the

permanent policy of his council to spend one third nf the general rate on street improvements—surfacing, substantial culverts, etc. In -some concluding observations, he again protected strongly sgainst the injustice with which boroughs havirg a population of more than 6000 were treated by the Highways Board.