MILLIONS FOR ROADS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 410, 19 July 1928, Page 12

MILLIONS FOR ROADS

PROGRESS TOLD IN FIGURES MR. COATES AND HIGHWAYS ACT Press Association. WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Five and a-half million pounds were spent on roads each year from 1919 to 1927, an increase of £3,500,000 yearly over the preceding eight years. At a luncheon of the Counties’ Association this afternoon the Prime Minister, the Hon. J. G. Coates, and the Hon. K. S. Williams, Minister of Public Works, were the chief guests. Dealing with the progress in roading during the past 20 years, Mr. Coates said that, including the Main Highways and ordinary Government grants to county councils and municipalities*, the amount spent on roads in 1919 was £2.162,000. This amount had been about the same each year as far back as 1916. Taking the next eight years from 1919 to 1927. the amount spent for the same purposes was £5,500,000, an increase of £3.500,000 a year. The population had increased from 1.175,000 in 1919 to 1,438.000 in 1927. almost 22 per cent., and the cost per head had increased from 37s a head in 1919 to £3 17s a head in 1927, so that where

the population had increased 22 per cent., the increase in expenditure on roads was about 100 per cent.. The number of motor-cars had increased from 50,000 in 1919 to 175,000 in 1927. INCREASE IN RATING Rating had increased at a great pace at an average of £ 57,500 a year for the last 28 years. For the past ! eight years it had been approximately j £423,000 a year. As the years went i on more and more power would delegated to local authorities, and lie believed that the amalgamation of many of the counties would help in this direction. Referring to the Main Highways ! Act, Mr. Coates said the measure was sound in principle. More economic means of transportation so far as motors were concerned was required, and there was the question of costs had gradually grown upon the land. New Zealand had accomplished as much roading in 80 years as some other countries had in 500 years, but it had also been shown that it was possible so to rate land that it was of no further use for primary production. It was time to consider what taxation the land really could carry. A man buying land under the expectation that rates would be only £SO, might find that his rates were in the end £l2O. Local rating was a dangerous thing so far as farmers were concerned. In the ease of some of the smaller boroughs such as Otaki. the land had been taxed so heavily that it was of no use for farming, though in reality it was useful for this alone. The costs of transportation could no longer i be thrown back on the land. A budget of remits concerning the , Main Highways Act was presented. It

was decided to urge an extension of the principle that the cost of constructing road surfaces should be paid threefourths by the Alain Highways Board and one-fourth by the local body. NATIONALISED HIGHWAYS A. proposal that around large centres and between other centres there should be nationalised highways was discussed at length, as was the position of secondary and by-roads. There seemed little desire to hand over the control of these roads. Several speakers suggested increasing the petrol tax. Among the remits carried by the conference was one urging the desirability of all local authorities, either jointly or severally, establishing a superannuation fund, and the question was referred to the executive with directions to consider a suitable scheme.