COUNTY TOLL-GATES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 22, 16 June 1914, Page 3

COUNTY TOLL-GATES.

MEETING AT NGAERE.

About forty settlers attended the meeting yesterday at the Ngaere Fall to discuss county matters, and especially tlie question of erecting toll-gates. Mr. W. Hathaway* county chairman, presided, and amongst those present wera Qrs. Thomson and Christoffel.

) The chairman, in the course of a very comprehensive and lucid statement, pointed out that the total revenue from general rates was £11,279, from special rates £757, and from subsidy £1519. He stated that the overdraft was £8737, the South riding toeing only responsible for £3lB of that amount, and yet the rates in that riding were li/.d, as against 2%d in the North riding! The total length of metalled roads to maintain amounted to 187% miles, and as it cost £4SO a mile for maintenance (excusive of bridges, culverts and administration), it cost the county £IO,OOO to work. The South riding was in a better financial position than any of the other ridings. The question to be considered was, what was to be done with regard to the motor traffic? Were the settlers willing to pay the cost involved fay this extra traffic outside their own? Some people said it was not the motor traffic but the milk carts that destroyed the roads, but that was not so. A tally had been kept on the North'road, and it showed that there were two motors to every horse-drawn vehicle using the road. If the roads had to he re-metal-led every four years in consequence of , the present wear and tear, were the settlers prepared to bear .the cost? He emphatically replied in the negative. | The settlers had a perfect right to demand that the people using the roads for pleasure should be made to contri- ' bute towards the upkeep. He pointed i out that there was another unfairness I under which the county had suffered for I years, and that was not getting the full | subsidy on the rates collected, and he quoted the Rangitikei county, which brought in veryi little more than thci Stratford county in .rates, yet received £SOO more in subsidy. ' This, he said, was due to the present system adopted by the Government of giving no subsidy on rates over a certain amount, and the consequence was that the Stratford county's overdraft had increased. He estimated the revenue from a tollgate at Waipuku at £llOO a year, but S it were placed in the South "riding it would not produce so much. He answered a number of questions as to administration, expenditure, hospital and charitable aid contributions, and other matters connected with county affairs, and stated that he did not believe the settlers would derive any good if the Government took over the. main roads. He read out the proposed schedule of tolls, but in reply to a question said he would not commit himself as to how the toll revenue was to be divided up, the matter being one for the Council to decide.

After* further discussion, Mr. N. A. Brown moved —"That it be a recommendation to the Council to erect a toll-gate in the A T orth riding, and that the portion of the revenue to be allocated to the other ridings be left to the, Council to decide." The motion was seconded by Mr. J. ChristofTcl and earned unanimously. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Hathaway for his attendance and for the information given to the meeting by him.

GENERAL PARAGRAPHS. The special meeting of the Borough Council that was to have been held tomorrow evening will not take place until Monday next. In the football match between Toko and "Whangamomona, played at Toko on Saturday, only one score was made, Corbett securing a try for the 'local team, and Dixon adding the major points. second spell was liotly contested, but was barren of results.

Your photograph will please them all —some of your friends have been expecting one for a long time—don't be satisfied with one taken years ago. Send them a fresh portrait, just as you are to-day, in your everyday attire. Having your portrait taken is as pleasant as an informal call on good friends. Make an appointment td-day with Mr McAllister, Stratford.