ROAD MAINTENANCE

Wanganui Chronicle, 29 January 1948, Page 4

ROAD MAINTENANCE

WANGANUI COUNTIES SUPPORT MOVE FOR SUBSIDY ABOLITION OF HIGHWAYS ACCOUNT OPPOSED (P.A.) Palmerston N., Jan. 28. The county councils of Manawatu, Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa provinces held a meeting to discuss the Government’s refusal of payment qf a £ for £ subsidy for maintenance and improvement on county roads other than main highways. They passed the following re. solution: "That the Government be approached again to pay a £1 for £1 contribution for the maintenance of roads other than main highways, that such contribution be made available on the same basis and in lieu of the present rate of subsidies. Further, that county councils retain their present full rights and control over the expending of money without review by Governments.” The conference also entered an emphatic protest against the decision of the Go-ernment to close the Main Highways Account and seize for general purposes funds originally designed to maintain and expand the highways system. It was of opinion that such action relegates the programme of the Highways Board to a place of secondary importance, and that the absorption of the petrol tax by the Consolidated Fund means that all guarantee for future good reading throughout the Dominion is conditional on how much of the tax is required by the Government for general purposes. A further motion carried was that representations be made again to the Government to implement the provisions of the Parliamentary report In regard to the hospital rate levy, the existing stabilised rate of a halfpenny being defeated whenever a new valuation is made, as to date valuations have shown a general Increase. The Wanganui County Council was represented by its chairman (Cr. A. H. Collins) and the county clerk (Mr S. L. Orr). The Waitotara County Council was represented by Cr. G. Palmer and the county clerk (Mr W. B. Broadhead).