Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918. TO OBTAIN GOOD ROADS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1858, 30 July 1918, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918. TO OBTAIN GOOD ROADS.

THE dil'licnll mailer of devennining what are the main roads of a country, which is used in New Zealand as an argument against the Government taking control of the construction and maintenance of main roads, Ims been overcome in Victoria by the appointment of a board, consisting of three well-qualified engineers, for the purpose of deciding which thoroughfares are to bo declared main roads, and also for allocating the proportion of the cost of construction and maintenance to be borne by the various local authorities whose districts are traversed by the main roads. Explaining the operation of the Victorian County Road Boards Act at a meeting of the Onehunga-Manukau Chamber of Commerce, Mr M. H. Wynyard, president of the Good Roads Association, said the funds for construction work were provided by a .Government authorisation of £400,000 a year fur five years. Half the construction costs were, ns expended, charged to the local bodies according to benefits received, as distinguished from the length of road traversing the district, as loans for extended periods. The other half of the cost was borne by the State. Any declaration by the board as to the classing of any thoroughfare a main road, or the allocation of liability, could be objected to by the local body interested, and the appeal carried to the Minister, In practice, said Mr Wynyard, the engineers and plants of the various local bodies had, under the board’s supervision, carried out most of the construction and maintenance work. The advantages of Hie Victorian method over the present New Zealand sys-

Icm of small disconnect cd grants and subsidies was the sotting out: of a comprehensive scheme of highways, the laying our of the noccs-.-ary work for years ahead, so (hat all operations would finally co-or-dinaie into a complete whole, the economies dice led hy one control as compared with administration hy numerous local bodies, and (he extensive employment of labour-sav-ing devices and machinery. Mr Wynyard said the association had already drawn a form of petition to Parliament urging the adoption of a roads policy similar to the Victorian system, and intended bringing the proposals before the public throughout (he Dominion.