THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1923. THE HIGHWAYS BILL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4585, 11 July 1923, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1923. THE HIGHWAYS BILL.

It is pleasing to note that the Government has now taken definite steps towards the bringing into being of the Highways Bill. This being so,, it is needful that local bodies should be prepared to meet the measure in the spirit which has called it into being. The increased cost of the upkeep of roads due to motor traffic has proven a,n insuperable obstacle to local governing authorities. The motor has almost annihilated distances that were formerly standards for horsedrawn traffic, and forced us to regard the roads as we do the iailways, as things of national, instead of county, concern. The task now io be. accomplished in any given county in order to provide and maintain -roads suited to the traffic is quite beyond the men/ money, and machinery powers of any county, hence the nationalisation of the main roads scheme. The counties have been grouped according to their supposed community of interest, and in most cases the grouping has been well made. Friction will occur, but,not of an insuperable nature. The main thing at this juncture is to recognise the inevitable, and to make the best of the highways .scheme, for it is an integral part of the evolution of modern traffic and the reading problem.