EXPENDITURE ON HIGHWAYS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22515, 24 September 1938, Page 21

EXPENDITURE ON HIGHWAYS

PROPORTIONS IN TWO ISLANDS APPROPRIATION TO NUMBERS OF VEHICLES How closely the proportions of expenditure on State highways in the North Island and the South Island approximate to the number of vehicles using them was shown by Mr M. H. Wynyard. a member of the Main Highways Board, in reviewing, at the annual meeting of the South Island Motor Union yesterday, the work of the board in a year of record expenditure.

Mr Wynyard said that the expenditure in the last year was £4,113,000, or nearly £.1,000,000 in excess of that for the previous yeax-. This included interest on grants £61,000, interest on loans £150,000, sinking fund reserve £IOO,OOO, subsidies to boroughs £31,000, and subsidies to counties £175,000.

The percentage of vehicles was 65.70 in the North Inland and 34.30 in the South Island, said Mr Wynyard, and it would be found that expenditure followed very closely these proportions, not because the board endeavoured to make it do so, but because the one was automatically governed by the other. Expenditure in the two islands came under the following heads:—Maintenance; North Island, £713,000: South Island, £360,000. Renewals: North Island, £95,000; South Island, £43,000. Construction and improvements: North Island, £1,270.000; Soxith Island, £909,000. Maintenance, renewals, and construction in the North Island totalled £2,187,000, or 61.30 per cent.; in the South Island £1,380,000, or 38.70 per cent.

Dustless Roads One of the main features of the board’s work was the concentration on the provision of dustless-surface roads, he went on. It 'was to be borne in mind that, while this made travelling more comfortable for the motorist, it also brought benefits to those living in the districts through which the roads passed. In particular the farmer had found that the elimination of dust had assisted in the control of stock diseases. The sharp dust from the roads, falling 021 pasture lands, was no doubt responsible for some stock diseases. Mr Wynyard said that 20 per cent, of the main highways in New Zealand—--2415 miles —was now dustless. Mr Wynyard dealt with plans for work in the coming year and expressed appreciation of the assistance given to the board by the motoring organisations, whose recommendations and»advice were almost invariably adopted by the board.

Mr C. J. Talbot, another member of the board, said that the year had been a record one in the number of vehicles, the speed of travel, and in revenue. Petrol taxation and licence fees produced a revenue of £2,500.000, exactly double the revenue 10 years ago. Every year the Main Highways Board was increasing its measure of assistance to local bodies. In the last year the board had provided 87. per cent, of the cost of maintenance on main highways to the 13 per cent, of local bodies. In construction the board’s share was 95 per cent. The sum of £400,000 had been voted for the elimination of railway level crossings. In every way the board had endeavoured to support the Road Safety Council in its valuable work.

Mr Talbot concluded by remarking that the board was importing the most modern machinery, and it was providing the most capable operators for them. He had no hesitation in saying that the board’s programme would make the highways of New Zealand as a whole .comparable with those of any country in the world.