HIGHWAY-FUND "RAID"

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 752, 27 August 1929, Page 10

HIGHWAY-FUND "RAID"

PROTEST BY ONEHUNGA OTHER FUNDS UNSAFE? The proposal of the Prime Minister to “raid" part of the funds of the Main Highways Board came in for some trenchant criticism by the Onehunga Borough Council at its meeting last evening. Cr. F. W. Mountjoy said that the question concerned every local body in the Dominion. The statute, he pointed out, provided for the sum of £200.000 to be taken annually from the Public Works Fund, and a further sum from the Consolidated Fund, and paid into the Highways Board’s account. Unfortunately the Highways Board had not spent its money fast enough, and the balance provided a temptation to the Minister of Finance to rob the board of £237,000 a year. Motorists were among the most heavily taxed sections of the community, and their contributions in Customs duties, tyre taxes, registration fees and petrol taxes were sources of enormous revenue to the Government. If the council and other local bodies did not raise a protest against this proposed diversion, sooner or later the Public Trust and other public funds would be tampered with. He moved “That this council, believing that any interference with the funds of the Main Highways Board is a distinct breach of trust, resents strongly any such action by the Government, also that the Prime Minister and the member for the district be advised by telegraph of the council’s opinion.” The Mayor, Mr. E. Morton, in supporting the motion. contended that motorists were entitled to fair play, and if local bodies failed to resist the Prime Minister’s proposal it would be only a question of time when they would be deprived of their share of the petrol tax. Cr. H. Campling dealt with the subject from the standpoint of the friendly societies, who had a fund of £ 3,500,000 under the supervision of the State.- If the funds of the Highways Board could be encroached upon at the will and pleasure of any political party, no public or semi-public fund would be safe. . The motion was carried unanimously.