SPLASH !

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 764, 10 September 1929, Page 8

SPLASH !

THOUGH the Main Highways Board’s expenditure this year will, as the Minister of Public Works puts it, be “greater than for any previous year in the history of the Dominion,” this record outlay is to he achieved at the expense of the hoard’s carefully husbanded reserve and at the sacrifice of the fundamental principle that the heavy tributes exacted from motorists should be supported by a substantial and unconditional Government grant. What has hitherto been regarded with ample justification as a Statutory grant will now bear all the characteristics of a loan, 021 which the usual rate of interest will be paid. The interest will naturally he chargeable to the general motor-revenue fund, to which all classes of the community contribute directly or indirectly, though the brunt of the levy falls upon motor-vehicle owners.

Though it is gratifying to note that, an extra 1,600 men, bringing the total to 5,000, will he absorbed by the twelvemonths’ scheme, the method adopted appears to place a disproportionate share of the relief burden on the motoring section of the community, and it has the additional disadvantage that, the present reserve of £650,000 having been completely absorbed, it will leave the board in an unsatisfactory position for future years. Having accumulated such a reserve, the board may be open to the reproach that it has failed to spend with sufficient freedom. But it has erred on the right side. The reserve fund gave it a stability it cannot possibly possess if it has to revert to the old hand-to-mouth system of year to year finance.

As far as the immediate prospect for road-users is concerned, it is interesting to speculate on the extent to which the everyday motorist will benefit from the plans. In-the immediate vicinity of Auckland the roads are of generally satisfactory standard. Although a great deal of work has been done on the main Whangarei road north of Warkworth, operations might well be expedited. Until there is at least one good all-weather arterial road along thp length of the Northern peninsula, conditions there will remain a reproach. South of Auckland the condition of the Auckland-Hamilton highway, which .carries one of the heaviest traffic burdens of any road in the country, is always a subject for interesting study. Outside the sections handled on modern lines in recent years, the condition of the road cannot be considered satisfactory. There is a great need for permanent paving along its whole length, a requirement the Highways Board was known to be considering, though recent developments 2iiay compel a modification of its ideas. In view of the abandoning of the railway scheme, the improvement of the Rotorua-Taupo road will presumably be undertaken without delay. The completion of the road over the Urewera Country is another work of interest.