ARTERIAL ROADS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17078, 4 September 1917, Page 5

ARTERIAL ROADS.

THE VICTORIAN SYSTEM.

The question of good roads again came up at the meeting erf the Chamber of Commerce last night, 'when, as the result, of correspondence with the Victorian Government, the following resume p£ the Victorian Country Roads Act was given :— \ This Act, which has created great interest, came into force in 1913, when a Board of Administration was appointed.

The objects are :—

Improvements of principal highways of Victoria to assure the adoption of a system of continuous maintenance.

Tho Board consists of three members, who have jurisdiction and control only over declared arterial roads under the Act.

The Board investigates road conditions, conferring with municipal authorities, and later determines as a Board as 'to which are to be arterial roads under the Act. The municipaL bodies have the right of appeal to the Minister of Public Works, whose decision is final. The roads are then gazetted tinder the Act, when the responsibility for the construction and maintenance devolve.! on the Board.

The Government borrow and pi'ovide the whole of th* money. 50 per cent, is repaid to tha Government by the public bodies interested, such payments extending over a period of 31J years at six per cent, 4A per cent, being interest and JJ per cent, sinking fund.

A fund is created from vehicle registration fees, fines, repayments and. Government subsidy. Half of the maintenance cost is paid by the public bodies interested.

Mr L. Bas&ett move that the information be forwarded to the executive of he Chambers of Commerce in Wellington, with a request that the matter oe brought under the notice of the Government, with a view of the system being put into operation at the earliest postwar period possible.

The motion was carried unanimously