The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1921. MAIN ROAD PROBLEMS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 651, 19 July 1921, Page 4

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1921. MAIN ROAD PROBLEMS.

i “We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.’’

Since the use of the motor car has become so universal, the question of the maintenance of main roads has given a good deal of anxiety to local bodies generally, and the position in regard to them has by now become acuta. For years the Times has pointed out how extremely unfair the present system of road construction and maintenance has been, inasmuch as the whole cost of it has fallen on the land-owner, and the user —and destroyer—of the roads, escaped scot free. The Times has always advocated two remedies which would at least ease the situation, a special tax on motor car tyres and the erection of toll-gates. This latter proposal we ' scarcely expected would be popularly acclaimed, but it appears to us to be the only way of compelling the user' of the roads, to pay at least part, of his share. We are glad to see that Mr Coates, the Minister for Public Works, is facing a disagreeable position courageously. Re does not like toll-gates any 'more than we do, and he does not expeqt them to add to the Government’s popularity, but like the Times he has realised, though some years later, thai they are a necessary evil. Replying to a deputation from the Wellington Automobile Club, which had visited him ti object to the Hutt County Council erecting a to!l-ga,te, he told them, in effect, that the erection of toll-gates was a necessity of the times. He hated the sight of a toll-gate himself, but if money was spent in constructing a road, money for its maintenance must be provided. Taranaki had a number of such gates, and had applied for permission to erect seven more, and instead of the cost of collecting the revenue from them, amounting to 25 per cent., as the deputation stated, it only amounted to 10 or 11 v per cent. He foi’eshadowed legislation coming down next session by which means arterial roads would be at least partially maintained by the imposition of a tyre tax. This left the maintenance of ordinary main roads to be provided in some other way. We would point out again, as we have several times before, that the farmer, upon whom, up to now, not merely the cost of construction, but that of maintenance also, has fallen, is not so greatly interested in the main roads as are the people who use them for commercial purposes or for joy-riding. He requires good means of communication with his home-town, and his railway station, but roads from one town to another concern him very little. We trust that when Parliament assembles the trouble will not be shelved as. hitherto. Year by year the position has been growing more and more difficult to meet. It is not merely that there is an annual increase in the length of road to be maintained, but the distressing fact that work a pound would pay for ten years ago is now two pounds ten. Under the present conditions of the woo! and meat markets it is certain that most farmers will not make enough from, their land to pay their rates, and unless relief comes from other quarters the roads of the colony must go back instead of forward. We. therefore, welcome the tardy recognition by the Government of the exigencies of the situation, and trust , they will translate their patiences may well give them heart of grace. Several toll-gates have been established in that province for years, and the fact that it is prorv.yed to have seven more there proves that-they are a success.