TOLL SATE ON BUTT ROAD

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2780, 26 May 1916, Page 3

TOLL SATE ON BUTT ROAD

Interviewed last evening by a Dominion reporter in connection with the resolution passed by the Hutt Borough Council on Councillor Ball's motion, that a toll-gate, should bo erected on the Hutt Road, the Mayor of Petone (Mr. J. W. M'Ewan) stated that-he favoured the proposal. "Tho road," he said, "was used to a large extent by tho owners of motorwagons and motor-cars, and by the • Government for transit purposes to the military, camps. Under tho present system, these and othef- owners of vehicles contribute no more to the maintenance of the road than the person who never uses it." He expressed tho opinion that those who did use the road, and particularly when they bolonged to non-contribnting areas, should be callcd upon to pay a little more towards its upkeep than others, who at present paid for but did not use it. Ho instanced a case where a heavy load of furniture traversed tho Hutt Road, on route for Pongaroa. "In the event of a 16ft. concrete roadway boing formed," Mr. M'Ewan added, "I should still favour the erection of a toll-gate for vehicular traffic." Tho question of the most suitable place for its erection, as well as the scale of rates, ho thought, might well bo left to tho controlling body, tho Hutt Road Board of Control.