MOTOR VEHICLES BILL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4648, 14 January 1924, Page 4

MOTOR VEHICLES BILL.

MAINTENANCE OF ROADS. FUNDS BY TAXING USERS. A statement of the objects of tfie Motor Vehicles Bill was made by the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. j. G. Coates, at Kaeo, on Saturday evening, He said the Bill was in the hands of the Minis,ter for Internal Affairs, but as Minister for . Public Works he was interested in roads, and he would have to find his share of the financial provision. Primarily the Bill was to provide £150,000 to £200',000 annually for the maintenance of roads made under the M>in Highways Act. It was essentia that the Main Highways Board should have funds for the maintenance of the capital work, or the whole object of the measure would be stultified. Local bodies could not always afford to maintain the works, an 1 the roads could not be allowed to return to their former state for lack of surface maintenance. Complementary to that was the control o,P the traffic using the roads. The Motor Vehicles Bill was, therefore, intended to provide proper safeguards against the capital, represented by the roads being lost for lack of control over the class of loads using them. At present the whole system of traffic control in New Zealand was economically unsound, and the present by-laws totally inadequate. Mr Coates said he intended to call a conference of urban and rural local bodies and of motoring interests to sec if they could not agree on proper traffic control. If they approached an agreement, then Parliament, which had the final word, would probably forward the measure. I;i regard to raising the money for maintenance, he hoped all interests would accept their share of responsibility. The principle of taxation involved in the Bill was that the user should pay for the maintenance of the roads. The Bill would probably provide fo r a flat tax per motor vehicle, but that was not the best application of the principle. If possible, he hoped the user would be made to pay through a petiol tax, which was the fairest wav in his opinion. He thought ways covid be found- for exempting petrol used for launches and machinery, asneci illy farm machinery. Mr Coates made a special appeal to the farmers not "to raise a howl” at the very mention of a petrol tax, as he thought exemptions could be provided for the petrol used for milking, etc. I,t must be-recognised that the whole system of motor taxation had to be remodelled. If the roads for petrol vehicles could be provided, no one he thought, would be quicker to realise the direct gain from good roads than the motorist, and he wi.uld probably also be found rea.dy> to pay for them, recognising that it would pay him to do so by the .saving in cai and tyre wear, petrol, and time. Medical authorities and other food experts have lately been hammering into the public mind that bread consisting entirely of wheat flour is i>ot by any means the most wholesome and nutritious staple food available. Some advocate wholemeal bread as a much more useful diet. Mr A. F. Spawn, who played a prominent part in the early development of various pacts of Victoria, and whose lifelong experience (amounting now to 82 years) in food and food products (says the Melbourne Age) entitles him to rank as an authority, offers a further alternative. He advocates as the ideal bread for daily use a loaf made of two-thirds wheat and onethird sweet potato flour. In order to demonstrate the 'superiority of this type of bread Mr Spawn had a number of loaves baked on a Tuesday. A portion of a loaf cut on the day it was bvked appeared almost as fresh on the following Saturday. The sweet potato flour contains some property which retains the moisture for a surprisingly long period. The flavour is different from that of the ordinary bread, but Mr Spawn speaks from experience in other countries when he says that the taste for it is .soon acquired. The merits of sweet potato and wheat breads are that the loaf contains more nutriment than the ordinary type, is more easily digestible, and retains its freshness for at least a. week. IJI-LI Will A -■■IIIIIMI jri 1 -