NOT EQUITABLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 81, 26 March 1914, Page 4

NOT EQUITABLE.

The “Taranaki Herald,” in the course of some general comment on tollgates, expresses the view that tin chief weakness of the system as ap plied in Taranaki, is that ; t penalise one district to the advantage of another, and goes on to say : “The Tar; - naki County Council’s gate at Puniho, for instance, levies toll upon the ratepayers of the adjoining < non try for the maintenance of the Taranaki county roads whenever they travel over them. The same gate taxes Taranaki county ratepayers who travel into the Egmont county. in other words, the Egmont county ratep.iyci must pay for using the Taranaki county road, while the Taranaki county ratepayer has the free use of the Egmont county road. The Egmont county might retaliate by erecting a gate just within its boundaries, but it would tax its own ratepayers far more heavily than those of the Taranaki county, for the traffic is chiefly in the direction of the port and the chief centre of the district. This principle of retaliation may be carried to absurd lengths. The Stratford County Council has seriously dis cussed the question of erecting tollgates near the county boundaries in several places to compel foreign traffic to contribute to the maintenance of the local roads. If this principle is allowed to extend we may have a country dotted with toll-gates, making the cost of using the roads almost prohibitive. The suggested remedy of readjusting county boundaries will be only in its effect; the real remedy lies in main arterial roads being maintained by the General Government, which might levy

special taxes on motor spirit and motor vehicles to help raise rovemi. for road maintenance. . . The system of tolls in one county and none in the next is not equitable, but a system under which the General Government was responsible for all main roads and collected special revenue through the medium of a tax on motor spirit and motor vehicles would he fair to all. The ordinary road rates would he then available for maintenance of by-roads, which are in need of more care and expedition.” While there is something for consid-

eration in our contemporary’s suggested remedy, there also arises doubts as to the economy of the Government maintaining main roads, though if the oxtia taxes proposed to he paid were distributed amongst local bodies expressly as special subsidy for expenditure on main roads, such a scheme might find favor. We want S',met.ling done, hat almost sny thing ru' her than sir. exte is ion of the iniquitous toll-gate system.