The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12. THE ROADING PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 90, 12 May 1909, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12. THE ROADING PROBLEM.

Tlie greatest disability under which settlement labors in the North Island:, particularly in the winter months, is the want of good roads; and where there are good roads, the excessive cost to the ratepayers of maintaining them. Taranaki is probably tlie most unfori tunately situated' of all the provinces )in this rvs'peet, for coupled with a very heavy anil continuous traffic consequent 011 close settlement and the nature df the staple industry, there is a

great natural scarcity of suitable metal. The beds of conveniently situated boui.l- ---: er stone are now quite inadequate supply the demand, and the- river-beds further .afield may only be utilised jt 1 almost prohibitive cost. The llawcra, I Eltiiam and rarauaki counties, particularly, find themselves' unable to maintain the roads iu good conditiou with the ordinary sources of revenue at their disposal. The circumstances of their ;asc are somewhat singular, in that each county has lo bear th e cost of maintaining arterial roads, converging respectively oil Hawera, Kltliam and New Plymouth, which carry the whole traffic of districts outside their jurisdiction.' But even that circumstance does not seriously affect the position that is beII coming more painfully evident year by year—that tlie maintenance of the roads-, under tile present methods, will before long have become a. formidable tax 011 the land. The great obstacle to solving tlie reading problem is, of course, the price of metal. Were plentiful siip'plijs available at reasonable cost, as it was' hoped there would have been from the Government quarries ut Alt. Egmont eighteen months ago, the position now Would have been quite different. The need for impressing on the Minister for Roads the absolute urgency of completing the Mt. Egmont railway and quarries was never more imperative than j[t the present time, and should occupy a prominent place on the agenda paper ill the forthcoming conference oi the provincial county councils. Til,, position of the Oniata riding of the Taranaki County Council is not .111 enviable one. On account of having undertaken and completed costly bridge and deviation works, which benefit the whole of tlie traffic between Opunake and New Plymouth, the riding has run considerably into debt. The hopelessness of the position is now accentuated by the creation of the Hurworth riding (hitherto, as road boards, portion of Oniata), and the probable secession of the St. Aiibvn township. The tralne on the road is ever increasing, and will continue to do so until the Carrington road is so far completed and improved as to offer an alternative route from Opunake. The ratepayers are up against the problem of providing more money with which to square their icI counts. Tile question is' whether this 0 might more equitably lie accomplished by the establishment of toll-gates, or the levying of a separate rate over the riding. Wc certainly have 110 partiality for the obnoxious system of taxing people for the liberty of using the roads, vct j there arc circumstances under which the toll-gate might be the lesser of two evils, and it sccins to us tlu?e circuins'tanecs exist iu the Oniata riding. No doubt a separate rate would be the more convenient, economical and satisfactory from the point of view of the Council and frequent users of the road, but it certainly does not present itself to our mind as the more equitable. We, therciorc, favor the introduction of the toll-gates, for such time, ilt any rate, as may be required to reestablish the riding's finances (On a satisfactory basis. Meantime we hope e\ery eflort will be used by the united local bodies to induce tlie Government to make available cheap supplies of metal, therein lies the whole solution of this problem under tlie present system of road construction and traction.