"VICTORY ROADS"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 262, 1 August 1919, Page 8

"VICTORY ROADS"

BETTER ACCESS TO THE CITY

LOCAL BODIES' CONFERENCE

THE FINANCE PROBLEM

Better road's is a cry hoard from one end of the Dominion to the other. It is louder at this time of the year than at any other, owing to mid-winter conditions, particularly this year, owing to the gruelling the roads are setting throiHfh the sudden accession of much heavier motor traffic than they, have ever teen asked to stand hitherto. To discuss how best the roads could be improved and maintained .between Welling'ton and Paltnerston North oij the one coast and Wellington and Featherstoii on tho other, tho Mayor (.Mr. /J. P. Luke) convened a conference of all local bodies concerned, and the conference met yesterday. The following delegates were present:— Messrs J. P. Luke (Mayor of Wellington), K. A. Wrisht, C. H. Chapman, and C li. Norwood (Wellington City Council), C. P. Rishworth (Mayor Lower Hutt), J. W. M'Ewnn (Mayor L'etone), I' , . 11. Mather (Mayor Eastbourne), F. T. Mooro (chairman Jolmsonville Town Board), A. D. M'Lood (I'Vatherston County Council), E V Lilfiton (Wanganui Borough Council), G. Cook (Pctone Borough Council), Dunbar Sloane (.fohnsonviile Town Board), Howell (Hutt County Council), Whiteman (ffutt County Council), G. A. Campbell (Upper Hutt Town Board), C M. Banks (Wellington Automobile Association), Byron Brown (Otaki Town Board), England (Kaiori Borough Council), T. V. Moore (South Wairarapa County Council), Gumbley, and William Nicholson (engineer and clerk of the Lower Hutt Borough Council), and 1. Bryant (Makara County Council). In opening the conference, the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) said that he had called the conference of representatives of local bodies throughout the Wellington district in order to endeavour to bring about n. better condition with regard to the roads leading out. of Wellington. Tu the old days the roads were tho main avenues of access to tho •country, and it seebied as if they"would have to go back to the roads to' a very great extent. He referred to the demands of traffic driven by motor propulsion. He would not look upon the matter from the pleasure side of motoring, but more on account of the general change that was taking place in the traffic. It was advisable that both the main roads out of tho city should be> bettered, and conditioned, and become Victory one to the Manawalu the Victory "West Road, and the one to the Wairnrapa Victory East Eoad, in memory of the time when they v;ei-e inaugurating the work. Speaking of the road to .the Manawatu, the first thing to be considered wns the decking of the railway bridge to take motor traffic and further on the. proposal to avoid the Paeltakariki Hill was to continue the rond round the water front from Plimmerton or to Pnknrua, and frnm there down to Paekakanki. This would necessitate the construction of two bridges-one 400 ft. in length aft Pukema —but such a. road would mean a reduction in the length of the West Coast mart by five miles. On the other—the AViiirar'nr>a—side the matter was much more difficult, ns there was no other rood loading out of Kajtoke over tho hill, save the present , one which led over the Rimutaka Mountains at a height of .. 1100 feet. Tho road was altogether too narrow, the many sharp turns were dangerous, ond the surface was bad. He did not know whether another tunnel could not be nut through the hill beyond Petonc, and down the Wainui Valley, and eo round the sea. coa=t to the Wairarapa. He. did not know tho country;-but the Migjiieer had put it forward as feasible, and he helisved that it was.

The Mayor's Resolution. To give a basis for discussion ho would moveThat the conference places on record its opinion that, in order to secure the growth and prosperity of Wellington'and the surrounding districts, the provision of better road- . in" facilities is'absolutely essential. It considers that the change which is rapidly coming over the means of transport indicates that at a verv early date mechanical propulsion will almost altogether supersede horse \ traffic. It recognises that the present arterial system of roads, both on (he east nnd west side, is dangerous in the extreme, and constitutes a severe handicap to the proper development ot the district. . ' The conference further affirms that the lime has arrived when the co- ■ operation of nil local bodies, including the city, should be obtained in order to secure better means ot con- • muiiicatiou, on (he tais of mutual interest aud responsibility. It considers that the means for financing the project must largely he. provided by Hie whole of the local bodies. whoVe districts lie alongside and adjacent to the two main roads. It recommends that expert advice be obtained in respect to the following matters-.— "'■ (1) To • provide news over the water at Paremaln, either by planking the present railway bridge, under' an arrangement with the railway aur thorities, under such conditions as may be mutually agreed upon; or to construct a traffic bridge alongside the present railway bridge, with one row i of piles, utilising the piers of the present bridge to support the inner .side of the proposed new bridge, the road thence to PHmmerton to l'ukcroa grading from Pnkeroa- down to l'aekakarilu. (2) As to thfc ijest means of communication with tli« East Const, by means of an alternative road to the present road, if reasonably obtainable; or as to the re-widening, regrading, and re-surfacing of the present road from the foot.of the hill, on both sides, and removing thf sharp angles. The conference (is of opinion that I the money to provide for the foregoing should be advanced i|jy the Government by a long-dated loan, interest to be paid by local authorities at llie rate of 4 per cent., the difference between what the Government will pay for the money nnd (helper-cent, to be deemed to be n subsidy by the Government. 'J'lm conference hopes that within a reasonable period the Government iiunncc will approximate ■t per cent., and not the higher rate ruling at present. I The conference is of opinion ihat J the financial obligations involved should bo determined by commission, consisting of oni: member appointed by Wellington Oily and adjacent <liti'icls, One. by the local authorities in the Maiiawatu and 'Wairarapa (' tricts, and the third, who shall be chairman, by His Kxcellency the Governor-General.' Mr. 13. F. Lifi'ilbri (Waiiganui) seconded the motion. Tlii-y all realised Ihat 1 there should bn better communication j with the. Empire Cily. .lie anroved the ' idea of calling t'he new roads • Victory Roads ns n- splendid one He did not think they could offer n belter memorial to those who had fallen in the war.

The Superfluous Mangaroa, .Mr. F. T. lloore (.fohnsonville) spoke at. length upon the routes of the new roads. Referring to the road over Hie Rimutnkns he said the early pioneers had made a mistake in taking the road over the Mungnroa Hill to get to the Pukeralahi. Tl»; Mangnroa should lie cut out altogether, and the alternative route should bo along the line of the Akalnrawa Stream, which would provide au easy grade, whereas I he old road goes up Mir hill and down again lo setto the same point. He thought thai the Mayor's proposal lo Hi row Mm burdon of the expense on the local lx.dio* wa« going lo meet , with opposition. The eoncrele rofitl was Urn solution of the difficulty. That was soiii? io i.'iil 'down the expenses by half, and motor-cars were going to last twice «s long. He held that 1 he expense of laying down the roads must be met bv a tax on tvres. Mr. E. AVindley (Makara) could not agree with Ihe resolulion. 'I'houdi the concrelo road was quite a. feasible and good one for the motor traffic, they must remember that horse traffic still existed,

and would continiie to exist, and a concrete road was no good for a horse. He also pointed out the extremo danger of the Ngahauranga. Gorge Road. Coast Road to Wairarapa Impossible. Mr. A. D. M'leod (Fesithersion v.ounvyi said they had decided in the Wairarapa that something must bo done, and he did not believe that it was any good to leave it: for the Government to play with, and pointed out tho dauger that would arise over log-rolling over the question as to what is an arterial road. Men who had any experience with City Councils knew that road-constrution cost 50 per cent, more than it could be done by the county councils, due to the wasteful methods employed, over which they had no control. As to the route to the Wairaraya, the proposed road round the coast was not worth considering. He granted that it such a rood were possible people would be able to reach the Wairarapn as quickly by the coast road as they could by going over (lie hill, bill at the Mokomoko the .rubble was couslantly falling from above, and erosion by the sea was always joins on below, which made a road at that point quite impossible. The Featherstoti County was committed (o pay half of the cost of the improvements proposed to lie made on Iho Wairarapa side of the range, but some of their members were diffident as to how they were to fare thereafter—that having fixed up their half of the road, they might be dragged in to pay for improvements on this side of the tall. As reasonable men they knew that the Hutt bodies could rot stand the cost. Still they wished to arrive at some sort of working basis which would not bore on any section ■unfairly. Mr. E. P. Rishworth (Hutt) thought tli© conference was premature, ;w the whole question was to, como before the Municipal Conference a. little later, and the Wellington City Engineer was away in America aud England gathering information oai road construction, which might upset all their ideas as to the methods of road construction. The resolution committed the local bodies to immediate action, and therefore to expenditure, the amount of which they knew not and he was not prepared to commit the' body he represented to that expenditure without knowing more about it. The burden on tho smaller local bodies was already too heavy. In his opinion, though the Wairarapa was making thequestion an urgent one, tlie conference was premature, as another conference was to go into tho whole subject. It was urged by 'Air. K. A. Wright, M P. (Wellington), that it was desirous that the different bodies and conferences should be of the one miud ou the question when they approached tho Government, otherwise they would oe told that uutil they'agTeed amongst themselves the Government could do nothing. _ Mr. J. W. MTSwan (Petone) pointed out the general lack of confidence that delegates showed in tho Government, and in Government action. He found it ■difficult to understand why the bovernment could not carry out tho work _of building and maintaining the arterial roads, when it was undertaken by tut State Governments in America, ketone only had a mile of the road passing through its boundaries, and Petone was prepared to "do its bit," but he had no nitn in commission.?, and recounted how Petone had fared in regard to its share of tlie cost of the upkeep ot the rLutt E Mr" WJ. Howell (Hutt County Council) pointed out that the settlers along the road could not be expected to pay lor the making and upkeep of arterial roads. He pointed out that the whole of the country both at Pnekakariki and the Rimutakas was very poor. At Hoiokiwi there might be "one lm Lizwe to every four squaro miles/' but there were no more. He could not support the resolution, as he thought it ww.quite o the' wrong track. Hβ was'ot opinion that the Government should tako over the whole of tho arterial roads.between Wellington and Auckland, leavmg the by™ to tho local.bodies. This matter of the maintenance was a very big ono and it war. too big a question ioiU, i!°l l Heather (Eastbourne) agreed with'the spirit of the resolution, but had his doubts as to the financial proposal to meet the cost, and urged the Mayor to exuse the paragraph as to the cost.. ur. Moore (Nuurarapa bouth objected' to the Wairarapa Koad being called the Sast Coast Koad. To them the East Oust Itoad was not the main- Wairarapa road but quite, another district out toW Tni Sayrk the East Coast to us -tne range divides the island. Mr Moore: "The Maungaraki divides itVus." Speaking further, Mr. Moore of Government'control, as all knew that the local bodies.could make the money go much further than the Government did. i\lr C M. Banks (Automobile Association)'thanked the delegates for. being permitted to take part in the conference. & thought that if the locaL bodies were to consult the motorists, a pood d«u of tneir troubles would be lightened, as t-hev were as anxious'as anyone to see the roads put in order. He did not eee how they could do much in a big way until the matter of finance and taxation was settled, but he hoped that something would be done at once to make the roads ?iie ' A Finance Amendment.

When the Mayor went to put the vote, lie commenced with the numbered paraiimuhs, but the conference decided to taKe the preamble, clause by clause. Ihe third part (relating to finance) was held u") by Mr. ]?. T. Moore, who moved as an amendment: .i *. "That the conference considers that tlio means for financing the project must lai«ely bo provided by the Government, and therefore that the Government be aslted to introduce to lV? a ' uen ,V' s an went measure, an Arterial Road finance hud General Powers Bill, embracinß tiie series of resolutions relating to mam h."li«'avs adopted at tbo conference of local bodies and Chambers of Commerce held in Wellington on July 1 aud 2, 19 ln moving the amendment, Mr. Mooro siid that many of the local bodies were too impecunious to bear the burdensome cost, ami,'as Mv. Wright, M.P., had said it would bo fatal to go to the Government differing from the decisions of the conference held iu tho first week ot July by Chambers of Commerce. Ihat -onfereuce adopted tho principle that the cost of the maintenance of arterial roads be borne by the National Government, •md he'was still of the opinion that it should be a matter for tho Government. Mr E P. Bishworfch seconded the amendment, and Mr. Mather gave it his oiHi Council.was now nearly up to its limit of taxation. That compelled them to refuse to support a financial uiuierhiking they had m> legal means of carry"Mr'Norwond. though believing in the national control of arterial road?, disagreed with the amendment, as he believed in getting something done, ami lie believed that could best lie done by giving effect to the resolution. On being put, the amendment was: car. Tied on the voices, whereupon the Mayor deleted the latter part of his reaction altogether, and dismissed tne conlercnce.

. ANOTHER CONFERENCE A 50 PElt CENT. PROPOSAL. \fter the conference had ended the Mavor (Mr. J. P- l'»N asked the members of iocal bodies interested in t.he state of the Wairarapa road on tins 6uo «f tlu. hill to remain. Mr. Luke briefly said that the road was in a positively dangerous condition, and mufit be put in "order The Waiiarapa people (FeatherstoiO had offered to find 50 per cent, of the cost of putting the road in order on their side of the lull, and he lhou"ht Mint they should do something to keep in Hue "» tlle Wellington side of the hill. He moved :-"Tlint the Wellington City Council and other local bodies concorncrl in providing safe means of access by road to the Wairarapa make renrcsciitat'ions io their several councils lo make the necessary financial arrangements to ensure conditions on Mils side of the liiiimtnka road similar to Hie other side by providing SO per cent o the HDSL involved, the Government, lo hnd the balance." Mr llowcll seconded I lie motion. Mr' Jl'lx'fld (Fcatherston) stated most emphatically that if something were: not done at once communication with Wellington by road would be cut off altogothor • Most of the bridges had. been condemned, and there was never a time he ca'nio over when ho did not think he would have lo return by way of the

Manawatu Gorge. ■ Then if a slip occurred on the railway line ov there was a blockage in one of tho tunnels—as had occurred before—there would be no communication with Wellington at all. On being put, the motion was carried uimnimouslv.