A VEXED QUESTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 136, 26 February 1918, Page 5

A VEXED QUESTION

CONSTIUICTION AND MAINTENANCE OF ROADS.

Speaking of the maintenance of roads in his interesting paper on "The External and Internal Communications or the Dominion," the president of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers, Mr. J. Blair Mason, said :-"In sparse-ly-populated districts the burden ot keeping up to the times is greater than can be properly met, even with the aid of a capricious and usually inadequate Government grant. It is manifestly unfair that, the cost and maintenance of roads which carry through traffic contributing nothing towards the funds of the country through which they pass should be the burden of the local body. As a measure of relief the old-time method ot tolls is sometimes resorted to, but with the growth of motor traffic they have generally fallen into disfavour. A. recent attempt to introduce the tod-bar in a southern district met with strong opposition, and had"to be abandoned. "The disintegrating action of motorproptlled traffic of to-day has made the task of the maintenance of mam roads too heavy in most cases for the local councils 'to bear. Consequently deterioiation is rapid, and to ma.ee matters worse, the little money available for road repairs is often spent in filling the ruts with earth spoil from the nearest bank. After ram the traffic produces a quagmire, and so the road goes from bad to worse. _ "A strong public opinion is growing that some different method of road control, also of the construction of the main roads to meet the motor-propel-led traffic, is necessary. In France, Italy, Germany, and England special road-governing bodies have been formed. In America there is the Federal Board of Read Inquiry, controlled by men possessing special knowledge, who, in conjunction with the highway boards or commissions of the various States, determine the apportionment of the cost of approved roads, part of which is borne by the State and part by the municipality. .Landowners are in some cases called upon to contribute. There does no£ seem to be in the States any system in carrying out the insti Notions. In some States the municipality is required to do the work; ,in others tho State supervises; sometimes it is hy agreement. "In the Commonwealth the State of Victoria passed an Act called the Country Roads Act, 1912, to inaugurate and carry out a better system than that previously obtaining in the State for tho construction and maintenance of the principal highways and developmental roads. The Act constitutes a board of three members. The Government has placed to the credit of the board the sum of £2,000,000, to be expended over a period of •'five years in tho construction of such roads a.s the hoard considers to be of sufficient importance to be main roads, and also with funds to maintain roads to a standard suitable for the traffic they are required to carry. The board, save in special cases, relegates the work of construction to tho shires and municipalities, who have to do the work to the board's satisfaction. Splendid results have followed the operations of tho board, and the State can now boast main roads equal to all modern demands of traffic _ Transport has been made generally easier and the settlement -of the back-blocks encouraged."