Control of- Main Roads.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1024, 23 May 1871, Page 3

Control of- Main Roads .

Mr Sutton, pursuant to notice, moved—1. That this-Council resolves thai the present system of administering the funds of the province toward" fho maintenance of roads, requires considerable a'teration. 2. 'that the control of all roads, whether main trunk line-, or bye roads, be at once handed over to the High ward Board of the ■district wherein such roads are situated. 3. That the amount of estimated expenditure under the head of " Roads" be apportioned to the several Highway Boards in the same manner aa the General Government contribution of £1,200, and that in future all provincial funds available for that purpose be divided among the Beveral Highway Boards in such manner as this Council shall direct. —(He moved that the*e resolutions be considered in Committee, which was not allowed, Mr Tanner objecting.) —He then said be would have brought forward this proposition before, had he not expected that some other member wo'ild have taken it in hand. Tt was quite time that the revenue of the Province should he fairly distributed in the various districts. When the toll-gate was decided upon no one for a moment believed that the portion of the main roads to whioh that fund was applied should be entirely cut off from any benefit from the rest of the revenue of the Province, yet such was the case. It was with the object of obviating such an unfair distribution of the provincial funds in future that he had moved this resolution. His object was to make the Highways Board responsible for the main lines of the Province, and to •div'.de the available funds among them in the same manner as the General Government grant of ,£1,200. The 70mile Bush road, he believed, was being made by the General Government, and with the aid of the grant he had mentioned, he considered the available revenue of the Province, rightly applied, was snfiieieut for the other lines in the Province. He did not look upon J lis proposition a« perfect, but he believed it would .go far towards obtaining a mare equitable distribution of the provincial revenue. As for the funds raised iVom the I oil-gate which were supposed to be applied to the roads in its vicinity, it was an open question to him what had been done with the money. The small amount of metalling which had been clone was a poor result as coinpared with the statement of expenditure, C'apt. Russell said the last speaker had fallen into several errors, but had made some valuable suggestions. He quite agreed with him about the tollgate expenditure. <£M9 had been spent during the year on the line between .Napier and Havelock, and £558 on the Puketapu road. There was very little to show for this. He agreed with the principle of the resolutions, and would nave preferred that they should be considered in committee. Mr Tanner said that when the Tollgate Act was passed the Superintendent told the Council not to expect the proceeds to be at all supplemented from the general revenue. The member for the town \\ as fai from correct in the statements he had made. If there were no provincial funds at the disposal of the Province, there neight be some force in the proposed scheme; but unless sortie more valid reasons were adduced, he must vote against it. [The remainder of this day's proceedings is una\ oidably held over ]