The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, JULY 1st, 1911. THE MUD TAX.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12768, 1 July 1911, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, JULY Ist, 1911. THE MUD TAX.

PR.mtAHi.Y- nctt many <>1 our1 readers K'ivo ever bond of the. "mud tax." A good many, no doubt, have heard votchunting politicians bewail the lot of tho hard-pressed pioneers in the roadless back-l>!oeks, and time was, in the not distant past, avlioii it was the fashion for ministerial hearts to plead at periodic intervals on account of tho hardships which long-suffering settlers had to endure, ft was remarkably'that those attacks were usually most acute r>l times coinciding with the approach j of :•. geiuii-iil election, hut this, of ( course, \\as a coineidi.-nco to which no sprx-ial signjfierinee attached. Appar- ' ently. much the same sort of thing }ioe>; on in ('-niiada to-day. More than sixty-fivo per cent of the whole popu- ■ lation of that great Dominion is rural. ' in otjier irords, mir.'h the larger pro-

portion of the population live on farms. And the Canadian farmer has awak-

ened to the fact that ho does " not escape a heavy road tax even if not one dollar is spent on the public highways. Ho has discovered that tho "mud tax" is heavier than that imposed by county or municipality, for it is paid in the time lost in going to market with half loads;' in with a double team when one horse might bo left at home to do farm work if tho road were smootli and hard as it should be; in wasting time m tho spring waiting for the sun to make tho road passable; in wearing out dray, harness- and horses wallowing through mud with a fraction of a load. Many a New Zealand farmer is paying this heavy tax to-day. Somo have boen paying it for years.- But although the farmer is the greatest sufferer under tho "mud tax," ho is not by any means tho only sufferer. AH other social enterprises wait upon tho enterprise ot good roads. Industrial operations are retarded through bad roads; the-devel-opment of business and trading is in- | terfered with; the interchange of | courtesies and the growth 6f ideas and I fellowship prevented, the prosperity of schools interfered with, and all other ":interests -retarded and discouraged wfteVevßf'^ settlement • exists -without "decent.roads. Tho Hon. Edward Bur-;roug'h-;l;presi<leht of the' Board of Agriculture in' New Jersey, is reported, a-?

saying 'that on a now stone road from M-erchantvillo to Camden his 'teams haul from eighty^fiye to one hundred baskets of potatoes where they formerly hauled twenty-five. One of tho counties in that State issued 450,000 ' dollars of four per cent bonds and put down GO miles of stone roads averaging sixteen feet wide; and though they pay taxes to ' meet the interest on those bonds; their tax-rate- Ls now lower than' it was before* tho road- vas built. It is easy tb see how that result would bo bi ought about. The increased value* - of tho property and the enhanced returns from produco at lower expense for marketing make it a highly profitable investment. A. reasonable, progressive and scientific road policy is a<s urgently needed', in New Zealand us it is in Canada; but there appears, to bo- but small prospect of ever getting it from our Baronet and • his Knights.