A COMING QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 204, 26 February 1912, Page 4

A COMING QUESTION.

ELECTRIFICATION OF MAIN SOUTH ROAD. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. Very 'shortly the Taranaki County Council will in all probability be called upon to face one of the biggest propositions it has ever considered, in the shape of a proposal to electrify the Main South Road, unless as an alternative it is propared to.sink the sum of at least £40,000 in road metal in I'e-grading the highway. The proposal, which is at present in an embryonic stage, was outlined' to a Daily News reporter on Saturday by Cr. D. McAllum, who, in common with other county councillors, has been considerably exercised of late over the cost of the Upkeep of the road in Question. "I have," he remarked, "at present only dim kind of ideas on the subject, but the main point is that I consider the upkeep of the Main South road, from New Plymouth right through to Manaia, is causing the county councils a terrible amount.of anxiety, and the solution of the problem to my mind is rails instead' of road metal." He added that every year each county had to provide more and more metal for the maintenance of the road, and the Taranaki county was now finding its, funds were being depleted. ; ( "ONE GLARING FACT." '

It was first of all thought that they should go in for a loan of between £45,000 and £50,000 for the purpose of regrading the heavy grades, and remetalllng the road from one end to the other. He had brought every point of view possible to bear upon the subject, with the result that there was one glaring fact always staring him in the face, and that was that even if the huge sum mentioned were spent, at the end of six or seven years at'the mo«.t the road would be. back to its sams old state, so that the Council would be in the sam« 1 position _as it was to-day. It would be faced with the necessity of floating another heavy loan, by way of special rate,, with the old one not even paid off. That, continued' Cr. McAllum, had proved to be the experience ;of other councils, especially in the Hawera county, the Taranaki County Council was each year putting actually 2000 more yards of metal on the roads. Roughly speaking, this represented an increased expenditure this year of £6OO, and it was going to increase each year. For instance, he quoted the case of the Mission Hill road. About nine months ago it was remetalled. To-day the metal was worn through. This was brought about on account of the very heavy traffic, particularly of traction engines. 39 MILES OF TRAMWAY. "The Egmont County Council is," remarked our informant, "faced with precisely the same difficulty, and I see that they have agreed to place three alternative proposals before their ratepayers: (1) Levying a higher rate; (2) raising £40,000; (3) a toll-gate. Now, my proposal is—providing my fellow councillors agree—that we ask the cb-operation of the Egmont and Waimate 'West counties to appoint committees to go into the question and see if some feasible scheme cannot be evolved." Mr. McAllum added that if all three bodies agreed to cooperate in the laying down of a tramway system, the line would run from New Plymouth to Opunake, a distance j of 39 miles, running through Omata, Oakura, Tataraimaka, Okato, Warea, Pungarehu, Rahotu, and Oanui. The county tram would in reality radiate from St. Aubyn, the idea being to link up there with the proposed New Plymouth Borough Council's tramways.Roughly speaking, about 17% miles of ; the Taranaki County Council would be traversed. TO HARNESS BELL'S FALLS.

There should, in Cr. McAllum's opinion, be little difficulty in getting sufficient water-power to drive the trans. The idea was to harness/the different water sheds between here and—if the other councils agreed—Manaia. Possibly one source—Bell's Falls—would itself generate sufficient electricity, but at present he was not in a position to vouch for that. If it was not big enough it could easily be supplemented by a number of other streams, each contributing from 5 to 10, 15 or SO h.p. as the case might be, the whole being conveyed to a central station.

Cr. McAllum stated that the idea was to lay Tails alongside the metalled portion of the road, on what is known as the side or summer track. •, The roads were usually a chain wide, and 14 to 16" and, in some instances, 18 feet.in the centre was metalled. Very little land would have to be dedicated, but one difficulty would be the construction of a few bridges. ' RAIL-LESS SYSTEM NOT WANTED. As regards choice of schemes, Cr. McAllum said he held that it was not for. Taranaki to expericen to experiment with any wireless systems" or storage battery cars. A rail-less system had also been suggested, but that was not feasible, for it would mean that the road, would still have to be metalled.

Touching on the question of finance, Cr. McAllum was optimistic. "It is," he said, "a big undertaking, but I am confident that there is money in it. I have little doubt that the revenue would pay interest and sinking fund on the loan, maintenance and upkeep, and leave a surplus for the upkeep of the Main road. But even supposing they had to levy a small rate to make up any deficiency, it would still be money in the ratepayers' pockets in the long run. Every year they were dipping deeper into'their pockets. The present year saw 'the road in the worst condition he had ever known it to be. Incidentally, Cr. McAllum mentioned that in additions to freight receipts income could be derived from the, sale of electrical power to dairy factories. As an indication of the amount of dairy produce offering for transport he said 'that two cheese factoies alone in the combined counties through which it was proposed to run the trams, turned out 4000 tons of cheese yearly. Much of the soil would be much benefited by artificial manures, and with a tram service thousands of tons of basic slag and the like would doubtless be made use of in South Taranaki. PUBLIC v. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. Finally, Mr. McCallum recalled that there had been some talk locally of forming a company, but their drawback was the difficulty they would experience in getting a Bill through Parliament to carry out the work. The county councils could, as public bodies, dispensewith that procedure, however. He continued that if the county councils interested would appoint committees the latter bodies could discuss the question, and if a majority of councillors were in favor of, the proposition, and the councils confirmed their decision, some expert would have to be appointed to submit a scheme.