ROAD CONTRACT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 194, 9 April 1932, Page 6

ROAD CONTRACT

WORK HELD UP NECESSARY CONSTRUCTION BEING SHELVED BY TREASURYi CONFERENCE PENDING. The. Auckland Automobile Association has been informed by Mr. M. H. Wynyard, motorists representative on the Main Highways Board, that some tenders for road works which have been approved by the counties concerned and which are ready for acceptance for the carrying out of necessary construction work under the Main Highways system, have been provisionally held up by the( Treasury in view of the National Expenditure Commission's report. Sufficient moneys are available in the Board's funds for the contracts under consideration," the money having been raised through petrol and other motor taxation for the- special purposes of roading. The effect of the delay reported by Mr. Wynyard will be that there will be more uncommitted money available in the Main Highways funds than would otherwise be the case should the Commission's report to transfer motor taxation from the Highway Fund to the Consolid^ted Fund be adopted. Petrol Taxation. The position is a little complicated and a combined conference is to ba held in Wellington when motoring representatives of the Automobile Associations of the island propose to interview the Minister on the whole subject of the report as far as the Highway finance is concerned. At a special meeting of the A.A.A. held tlr.s week, Mr. A. Grayson, president of the Association, said that the position regarding petrol taxation and its distribution was not generally understood and all too few 'motorists, especially the farmer motorist, realised that the motor owner was being placed in a special class as a taxpayer and that in addition to paying ordinary taxation, he was call'ed upon to pay twice over, road funds now being used for the purposes of general Government, relief of unemployment, subsidy on hospitals, subsidy on fertilisers and rebates on county rates. It m-eant that the farmer motorist was paying for the relief of his neighbour .on an adjacent farm who was not a motor owner. It was, said Mr. Grayson, extremely unfair that the motor taxpayer should be singled out to pay more than the non-motorist for matters which were quite outside h's motoring.

Position Appreciated The motoring representatives, when they interview the Minister, will make it quite clear that they are not wanting in an appreciation of the need to help the country in the present diffieulties and will point -out the tremendous amount to which motoring taxation has been taken for general relief of the community. In effect the motoring representatives will state. — "We want out of our motor taxation this year sufficient to adequately ma'ntain our main roads; we want enough construction money for the replacement of derelict bridges which are now in a dangerous condition and urgent roadworks partly completed, and we want a reasonable balance left in the funds to provide for sudden or general contingencies." The wisdom of this latter request was borne out when funds were recently urgently required for the reconstruction of roads in the earthquake areas ooth in the South and North Islands. With the remainder of motor taxation the motoring representatives will indicate that they are still willing to help the country but they are quite opposed to any increase in any taxation above the present rates. They will also indicate that they will very vigorously oppose the proposal of the Commission, which in effect means the abolition of the present Main Highways system.

Works i,n District. It is suggested that the following works of urgency in the Auckland district might be affected by the Com mission's recommendation regarding the limitation of construction work during the com'ng year: — The metalling of the Dom'e Valley on the Main Northern Highway, nex^ year. The reconstruction of several bridges in North Auckland which are ir. a very precarious condition. Urgently needed forrnation work on the dangerous sections of the Great South Road between Papakura and Bombay. Reconstruction and surfac'ng of the Ngaruawahia-Hamilton-Te ! Awamutu road. The bridging of the three streams between Opotiki and Gisborne. An amount of work which is still required in the Waioeka Valley to provide reasonable access between thc Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay. .