The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1919. £70,000,000 ON ROADWAYS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15977, 20 November 1919, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1919. £70,000,000 ON ROADWAYS.

Though America is held up as a model of ■whafc should be 'done by a progressive ooTiutry in. regard to its main roads, Americans themselves are not at all satisfied ■with matters there. Good road campaigns are more numerous than ever, and both State and Federal Governments are making plans for the expenditure of large sums on new roads and in maintaining those already in use. Perhaps the biggest scheme is the Naf tional Highway Bill, intrStnoed into the Senate by 'Senator Townsend, chairman of the committee on Post Offices and Post Office roads, is an entirely new piece of legislation, its object being to build, in each State, trunk line highways to the extent of not less than 2 per cent, or more than 5 per cent, of the total mileage of the State, and to join them with the main trunk roads of other States, thus creating a national system connecting the ' whole country. According to reports coining in to the Federal Highway Council, the movement in favour of the proposal is gaining rapidly throughout the United States. Of more than passing interest to New Zealand, with her few and badly-con-trolled main roads, is the following extract from an article in the American Motor World on the national highway Goheme:—

"The net result to each State* it now begins to appear, will be a strengthening of forces behind road development. The States on the one hand are to be aided by relieving them permanently of the construction and maintenance of the heaviest travelled inter-State routes, thus permitting the concentration of State effort on routes having their terminal points within the State. Thus, more effective co-operation of Federal and State power is to be gained by each having its specific work laid out, one applying its efforts to national connections and the other to the development of local or intra-State roads.”

Quit© apart from that scheme, however, America is in the midst of its greatest period of road construction. The total amount which will be spent this year by the combined forces of the Federal Government and the various States and counties has been computed at over ,£70,000,000. Tet great as that amount seems, it is claimed that it does not make up for what would have been spent on roads in the past few years had not the war hindered the work, and finally brought it to a standstill. Analysing the figures for the various State®, it is interesting to note, in view of conditions in New Zealand, that the agricultural States of America have made appropriations for road building which exceed those of other regions by many millions, and that many States have made enormous bond' issues to provide for <he construction of good roads. According to the London Times, England, too, has learned from her war experience the lesson that good roads are essential. For the coming year the Government intends to spend well over £8,000,000 on main highways. Of that sum 35 per cent, will be spent in the Greater London area, and the balance will be expended upon the roads outside that radius.