Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, SEPT. 12, 1929. THREATENED HOLD-UP OF HIGHWAYS SCHEME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3996, 12 September 1929, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, SEPT. 12, 1929. THREATENED HOLD-UP OF HIGHWAYS SCHEME.

THE threatened hold-up of the Manawatu (County Council’s main highways scheme is causing a good deal of adverse comment. It seems' extraordinary that the County Council’s comprehensive work, which had the endorsement of the Main Highways Board, should be threatened with cessation because the Government has intimated that it intends to withdraw its £-200,000 subsidy to the Board. It has not been stated what proportion of this sum affects the Manawatu County’s commitments. If the Government’s withdrawal of the £200,000 subsidy from the Consolidated Fund is due to the Main Highways Board building up a reserve capital fund, then the Government is justified in its action and the Board is to blame lor the present state of affairs. The Board would have been better advised to have distributed its funds to the utmost limit. Certainly fuller investigation should be made into the Board’s administrative methods. So far as the main highways in this county are concerned we cannot claim to have received in the past,, that share of the Board’s grants which the importance of our main highways demand and to hold-up the present works, apart from the unemployment which it will create, is nothing short of a scandal. The Manawatu County Council should leave no stone unturned to bring under the notice of the Government the injustice which is threatened, and in this connection it, will have the backing of local bodies, Chambers of Commerce and the Motor Association.