HIGHWAY POLICY

Hokitika Guardian, 2 October 1931, Page 4

HIGHWAY POLICY

SUBSIDY FOR > TRAFFIC INSPECTORS.

THE BOARD’S DECISION. WELLINGTON, September 30. At the last monthly meeting of the Main Highways Board a number of communications were received from local bodies expressing appreciation of the board’s decision to increase maintenance subsidy for the current year from £2 for £1 to £3 for £l. The board received representations regarding the danger of driving stock on highways at night, it being stated that mobs of cattle are constantly being encountered without warning and that accidents were arising througn that cause. One county council suggested that under such circumstances droving should -be permitted only if the stock was preceded and followed by a man carrying a- warning light. The board decided to bring the matter before the notice of the DirectorGeneral of Agriculture. As a matter of policy the board encourages the grouping of local authorities in schemes for joint traffic inspection, and a number'of such arrangements are in operation, under which several local bodies combine to appoint a traffic inspector to work in their areas on a basis of finance mutually arranged. The board has hitherto sub« sidised such contracts on a £ for £ basis, but in order to extend the system it has decided from October 1 ta make a subsidy to approved groups for traffic inspection on a basis of £2 for £1 expended on inspector’s salary and expenses.

Where a local authority carries out road work which results in telegraph and power poles becoming an obstruction to a highway, the Main Highways Board is prepared to assist in the cost of settuig hack the poles to the same extent as the subsidy it pays for highways work which has necessitated the removal, this subsidy to cover the proportion of cost borne by the local authority.