The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. MOTOR VEHICLES AND ROADS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 184, 8 September 1909, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. MOTOR VEHICLES AND ROADS.

A point of great interest to the who' community was raised at the meetb] of the 'Paranaki Qounty Council on Monday when a deputation, represent ing the promoters of the company whic] shortly intends to inaugurate a freign and passenger motor service betweei Opunake and New Plymouth, waited o) the Council with a request that the re duction of toll-charges on motor-wai" gous should lie taken into consideration Under the Council's schedule of tol charges, an impost of ten shillings pe: trip would have to be met by the nev motor vehicles—a charge which, it i generally conceded, would prohibit pro titable business to either the compan; or its clicnus. At the time the scab was fixed, however, the likelihood o the inauguration of a modern carryim service was not seriously taken into con sideration, otherwise specific provisioi might have been made to meet the al tered circumstances. We believe then will be unanimity throughout the di< trict affected to make reasonable con cessions, off the original schedule, in thi interests of a. service that must pro.'i beneficial to the whole coaßtal district No settled portion of Taranaki has bee; more greatly handicapped in transi communication than the district Ou tween Okato and Opunake—goods beini subject to necessarily heavy freigh charges, and passenger traffic restrictei by a tedious coach journey. The sub stitution of an up-to-date motor servi'.i for the present horse-waggons am coaches will be an event as momentou in the progress of the district as havi been the opening of railways in otne: parts of tlie Dominion. What concern the councillors is how to maintain th revenue from the road traffic at a leve which will achieve the object for whicl the tolls were cstsildishcd—the reductioj of the Omata riiHng's'tmTebtcdness. Th principal source of revenue at the pre sent time is derived from the good-carry ing waggon traffic—'business which wil naturally be diverted to the motor ser vice. lln il the toll-charges been fixed 01 a basis nf so much per ton instead of i fixed charge per vehicle, according c< class, thru; would have been no diffi culty :t''d!it the matter. That was no done, Jiowcver, and the question now ti be settled is what should be a fair ad justment of the new traffic as betweei the company on the one hand and thos responsible for the upkeep of the roa' on the other. It is stated that tin wear and tear occasioned by the motor waggons on the roads will not be s> heavy as at present, and that the sav ing thereby effected should be at one conceded to the motors. Against that however, is the fact that the tolls wer established primarily to reduce the s isting debt contracted by the Omat riding mainly in improving the road, an not necessarily for its upkeep. Th- to', charge, ■whatever it might ultimately b< will of course have to be borne by th coastal community; so far as they ir concerned it is only a question of ad justment between the cost of maintair ing IHe road and the freight charges 0' their goods and produce. If the tol charges are so reduced for the cneoui agement of motor traffic that the n> venue will not meet the purpose fo which they were instituted, the balanc will still have to be provided by th ratepayers l —out' of rate. And to ou mind this appears to be the best cours to pursue. The present scale for moto vehicles is excessive and prohibitory s far as commercial enterprise is concer: ed. Accordingly we believe it should b reduced, as we are convinced that anj thing_ the ratepayers might appear t lose in toll-revenue, will be more tha compensated for by the improved an cheaper freight and passenger service afforded, and the greatly increased ej pedition in getting their produce, parti oujarly their dairy produce, to its destin ation. In our opinion, the motor-wag gon traffic will not he so hard on th roads as that of similarly freighte: horse-waggons. There is no doubt tha motor-cars driven at high speed have s deteriorating action on the roads, bu the motor-waggon represents a totally (Tiffercnt class of locomotion. At th'i late International Roads Congress ir Paris, attended by the. ablest author! lies on road construction and mainten ance in the world, the question of momi traffic was given prominent considera tion. And as a result of their deliberations, it was agreed that with respjcl to motor vehicles carrying heavy loads limitation should be assigned 'to the weight carried per inch width of whcl with a maximum weight of 150 kilogrammes per centimetre in width of tyre. Worked "out according to the width of tyre proposed for the, motorwaggons to be used in the local service—-4-inch front and 6-inch rear—it will be found that the safe load to be carried (including, we presume, the weight of the car), according to the road experts, would be 7 tons 9% cwt. As the cars will actually weigh only one and thrscquarter tons, and are constructed to tarry two tons of goods, it will be seen that there is a' big margin in favor of the road. Of course main roads in England and France and roads in New Zealand, and particularly in Taranaki, ire scarcely on a par, but, nevertheless, making allowances for our inferiority in this respect, the roads should not suffer to any appreciable extent f weight can ihe attached to ;xpert opinion. It must be adnitted there is a difficulty in the way, n that the Council is being asked to fix i rate for a. class of vehicle they have lot seen. There is this to be said, honiver, that if the toll charges are reduced to a point that will assist the operaions of the company, and it is" found ;hat the roads are unequal to the additional demands made on/ them, thi chedule can again be revised. The comiany have to take this risk in any case Ithough we do not anticipate it need vcr cause them any apprehension.