USE OF ROAD FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 32, 8 February 1933, Page 6

USE OF ROAD FUNDS

In view of the Budget problems which confront the Government it is improbable that the Main Highways Fund will escape. The Motor Union, however, would be doing much less than.its duty if it failed to call attention to the consequences of diversion of the'funds. It.is stated, and the Mayor confirmed the statement from his personal observation, that there has-been serious deterioration of our main highway system and a lag in necessary bridge reconstruction. This is not sound economy. If the road deterioration goes far. the country will eventually be faced n6t merely with a higher maintenance charge but with heavy reconstruction costs. From another viewpoint the excessive economy is not well timed. Road maintenance is useful and necessary work, and the proportion of money spent on wages is high. When.complaint is made that unemployed are engaged in unremunerative work it is surely not good policy to cut too heavily into expenditure which" keeps men .off the register. Seventy years ago yesterday there occurred the "jtragic -wreck of H.M.S. Orpheus at Manukau Heads, with a loss of 185 lives out of a complement I of 256 officers, seamen,' boys and marines.. The'ship, a new steam corvette of 21 guns, was wrecked in broad daylight and in comparatively smooth water, as a result of entering the harbour on an incorrect course. The ship struck the 'bar at 1.30 p.m., losing her stern-post, rudder and propeller. She forced her way over the bar, and rapidly went to pieces in deeper water.