A SERIOUS OUTLOOK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 206, 20 January 1913, Page 8

A SERIOUS OUTLOOK.

TAXING THE TRAFFIC. The new by-laws for the regulation of heavy traffic which the Taranaki County Council have just brought into operation hare created quite a stir throughout the whole country, and also in the Rahotu riding of the Egmont County, where the settlers rely solely on that road for transporting their produce to the line, and for conveying their requirements from the port to their farms. The news that the Taranaki County Council were not only practically stopping the traction engines, but were also taxing the horse waggons was received with consternation. At the meeting of the Egmont County Council on Friday, Cr. Willcox brought up the question by asking if the Council was aware of the new by-laws that the Taranaki County Council had introduced, and asked whether some protest could not be made by the Egmont County Council. The Chairman remarked that the ; Egmont County had been agitating for months to get the Taranaki County Council to prohibit traction traffic. Now, when it was going to be stopped, would i it not place the Egmont County Council in an awkward position if they were to ask that the tractions should be allowed to continue? Cr. Wilcox pointed out that it was not a volte face on the part of the . Egmont Council. The position had now i considerably changed. When they agitated for the Taranaki County Council I to stop the tractions there wer.- plenty . of horse teams on the road. The trv. • tions had been allowed to run, with the \ result that one large firm of carters had been compelled to knock off. Now they were dependent on the tractions to get their stuff away, and for his part lie was prepared to give notice to rescind the tax placed on the tractions , by the Egmont Council. Cr. Harvey endorsed the previous \ speaker's remarks re the withdrawal of ' horse waggons owing to the traction engines. He thought a deputation of I settlers should wait on the Taranaki County Council. Cr. 'Willcox: This Council should be ■ represented. Cr. Burgess thought that the Egmont ' County Council had committed itself ( pretty deeply against traction engines, l and now to agitate in their favour ap- , peared strange. Where he considered the shoe pinched was the action of the ! Taranaki County Council in taxing the horse waggons after stopping the trac- ' tion traffic. ! Cr. Hirst said that they must not consider the ratepayers, but the road. Dairy ' factories would have to buy their own teams and cart their own products. 1 The Chairman, in the course of his remarks, referred to the fact that the Taranaki County Council were collecting ' a substantial amount of toll from the Egmont County for the use of their roads. Cr. Willcox: They're treating us shamefully! Discussion on the matter then dropped, but it is understood that a representative deputation of settlers from that district will wait on the Taranaki County Council at its next meeting in connection with the matter, which is of vital concern to them.