MOTOR TRAFFIC AND COUNTY ROADS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1663, 18 January 1917, Page 3

MOTOR TRAFFIC AND COUNTY ROADS.

The Kairanga County Council at its last meeting decided against taxing motor traffic. The question was introduced upon the reading of a letter from the Ohinemuri County Council, asking what steps had been taken to provide for the abnormal wear and tear caused to County roads by reason of the motor traffic. Cr Moodie suggested a conference of local bodies. Cr Small urged that 500 motor cars would do no more damage to the roads than 100 sheep. Cr Pawson; The whole trouble is the rubber tyre. The iron tyre crushed down the roads, and the rubber pulled the stones out.

Cr Moodie said if there was a vehicle the local bodies had to contend with in the future, in the matter of road maintenance, it was the motor, and he thought that owners of such vehicles should pay some form of taxation. In a short time they would have large numbers of motor lorries on the roads, and these were worse than cars. Personally he was not against motor traffic, but he though tthat if v a person could keep a car he could pay taxation.

Cr Lancaster objected to a motor tax. A large percentage of the cars were owned by ratepayers, and he did not see ,why they should have to pay another tax in addition to rates Alii c time had come when they should build roads to carry the traflic on them.

The Chairman (Cr Collis) : While we are running our motors, we are not using other vehicles on the road, so that it is as broad as it is long. Cr Pawsori said one point that had been overlooked was that lots of taxi proprietors did not pay rates.

Cr Lancaster: In town they pay a fee or a tux.

Cr Pawson maintained that they did not. He thought that if a farmer could afford a car he should afford to pay a motor tax. Since the advent of the motor it cost about three times as much to keep up their roads as formerly. Cr Craw: It is true that the man with a, car can afford to pay a tax, hut the man with 1,000 sheep can pay just as well. It is a mistake to put a tax on any vehicle, because it comes back to the farmer in the long run. Stock do as much damage to the roads as ears.

Cr Pawson disagreed with the latter statement. Sheep improved the roads in wet weather. Cr 'Small said he had been 25 years in the district, and was of opinion that the increased motor traffic had not interfered with the roads at all. A motor tax would be unfair. Some men used the road every day and others only once or twice a week. He contended that stock were quite as heavy on the roads as motor traffic, as was demonstrated on the roads near Longbum, which were cut to pieces. Motor owners should not be asked to pay higher rates. Cr. Collins supported this view. Lorxies, however, were heavy on the roads.