The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1919. TRANSPORT HANDICAPS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 257, 25 July 1919, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1919. TRANSPORT HANDICAPS

Prospects of an early improvement in the transport routes conuecting Wellington with the extensive country districts it serves are much brightened by the broad-rainc - cdand enterprising spirit in which the local bodies interested are approaching the practical questions involved. The Mayor (Me. J. IV Luke) has been creditably prompt in following up the suggestion advanced by Wairarapa local bodies in regard to the improvement of the Rimutaka road, and the representative local body conference he has convened, to meet at Wellington on Thursday next, ought to have little difficulty in formulating a comprehensive policy of main road improvement capable of immediate application. The question of making the highways through the Manawatu and Wairarapa fit to.mcet the demands of modern traffic is as urgent and important in its way us that of securing adequate railway facilities, and there is, of course, much greater scope for initiative on the part of the local bodies in regard to the roads than in the case of the railways. If the Manavatu local bodies show themselves as leady as those of the Wairarapa to co-operate in securing better arterial communications it ought to be a comparatively' simple_ matter to organise a powerful working alliance. The City Council and immediately adjacent local authorities certainly ought to accept their full share of responsibility in any practicable scheme of main road improvement that may be devised. The immediate object of the conference which is to meet next week will be, no doubt, to formulate such a scheme on the basis of, the local bodies finding a proportion of the money needed to raise the roads to the required standard and looking to the Government to substantially subsidise their contributions. Apart from the fact that the Government will be unable, much longer to redst the demand that it should assume sole responsibility for the ■improvement and upkeep of main roads, it is bound to recognise that the Wellington provincial area has very strong claims to consideration where the development of transport facilites is concerned. Past mistakes and the neglect of successive Governments have saddled the province With arterial road end railway communication's which in their existing condition are a serious hindrance to progress, and the time undoubtedly is more than ripe for insistently demanding a comprehensive remedy. ■

As a first but important step in this direction tho combined action by local bodies now in prospect holds excellent promise. Although they might fairly call upon the Government to take up its full responsibility in providing good main roads, it is no doubt expedient that the local bodies should agree to meet part of the cost of the necessary works. Much speedier relief will thus be obtained from transport disabilities which in existing circumstances impose an ever-in-creasing handicap on\primary and other industries and on development generally.. The ultimate aim should be, however, to make the upkeep of arterial roads a charge on national instead of local revenues. There is neither common sense nor equity in an arrangement under which impecunious local bodies arc tailed upon' to maintain stretches of road largely or chiefly traversed by traffic from which they derive no revenue. Combining to secure the immediate improvement of the main roads which link Wellington with the interior, and to urge the eventual transfer of these and similar highways throughout the country to Government control, the local bodies about to assemble in conference ought to unite also in bringing tho utmost possible pressure on the Government to improve the main railway routes which in their existing state are so ill-fitted to meet present and prospective demands. The way is all the more open to effective co-operation on these lines since the real identity of interest between town and country is coming to be more and more clearly recognised. City dwellers in touch with modern progress, arc well aware that this country has everything to hope from a wisely directed policy of decentralisation, and that the undue concentration of population and industries in urban areas is a thing to be resisted as utterly opposed to the general interest. Most convincing evidence is afforded)in nearly all the older settled countries of the world of the serious evils that losult from packing human beings into great cities, and there is every incentive to avoid duplicating such conditions in New Zealand. This means in the case of centres like Wellington not only that every .incentive ought to be given to the dispersion of population into suburban areas, but thit the whole trend of policy ought to be to distribute industries ■ and population as widely as is consistent with efficient production, and to reduce in every possible way the extreme contrast between urban and

rural areas which exists in oldersettled countries. First-class transport facilities constitute an essential aid and stimulus to healthy development on these lines, and on thaf. as well as on more immediate grounds it is wholly in the interest uf town and eouncry local bodies to unite in securing those facilities where they are now lacking.