BETTER HIGHWAYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 356, 17 May 1928, Page 8

BETTER HIGHWAYS

NEARLY TWO MILLm* TO BEJPW 0 * 5 PROGRAMME FOR YEAR (Special to TBM SPf, PAPAROA. It Is estimated by th. m X Minister that the Main Hio»Z!** Board will spend .*"*** £BOO,OOO and £900.000 year on the maintenance ef ary and subsidiary m , iß fT ways, and a sinrilar sun, on J. struction work.

Recommendations are bring to tho board for the addition J~** miles to the 2.750 mile* of snbsjaj* roads which have become The collection of petrol tax win erate the work. . The Prime Minister, the Rt. G. Coates, outlined to tn .ZZ*~ * hero this evening the activate, ,**!!* State during the past four making New Zealand roads bette ! In less than four years, he Main Highways Board had in the construction of 450 metal roads, 240 milea of tar bitumenous-e’irfaced roads, r? J? of concrete roads and over four bj,. of bridges. The expenditure in the same tm* including the amount ertimated <■» 1927-2 S. was nearly r3.250.Wf, tenance taking £1,442.000 and siruction £1,754.00G. In addition. tho local authwirw* had found £570,000 for maiotenuS and £725,000 for construction m»k ing a total of £2.300,000 spent m maintenance and £2.500.000 on W strucUon on tlie 6,400 miles of highways. The grand total tu.re had been, therefore, £4,&00* or about £1,250,000 a year. MUCH YET TO DO • The net expenditure by the Goverr. ment on the construction and asir tenance of roads and bridges than main highways, had w £2,695,280. Of this amount £2.466 had been spent on construction. Main roads through all bon>njfcs having less than 6,000 inhabitants hac been declared to be main highw»r&, so that from now on 10,000 miles of the country’s roading system been brought under the benefits of tb« board’s operations. Nevertbelea*. there were still about 35,000 mOes at road -which had to be maintained by the general taxpayer and counu«. without assistance from the motorists. Other schemes for improving tbt roads of the Dominion were in prccess of development, and the boanl was taking the initiative in the paepamtion of such schemes in districts immediately surrounding all centre* over 6,000 inhabitants.