TOLL-GATE COMMISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 314, 14 June 1915, Page 6

TOLL-GATE COMMISSION.

FURTHER EVIDENCE. ] THE CASE CLOSED. • The sitting of the Toll-gate Commission at Stratford was resumed on Friday afternoon., Mr. Fookes mentioned that in the Mayor's evidence on the previous day, he did not .wish to reflect in any way on the county engineer, but simply on the manner in which the Stratford County Council conducted its business. W. P. Kirk'wood, ex-Mayor of Stratford and chairman of the 'Stratford Automobile Association, stated that motorists looked upon the toll-gate as most inequitable and irksome. The charges at tlie different toll-gates in Taranaki were different, and at some gates the? charges were out of all proportion to j the class of car used. He considered that when a car was going through the gate it should be charged only on the I outward journey, and if it returned it should be charged again, Going around the mountain, the toll to be paid on a car would amount to 10s, and with the proposed gate would amount to more. He did not consider a toll-gate gav.; i good roads, and instanced tlie road :i t. Okaiawa, whejc, though there was a toll-gate, the road was the worst he had travelled over. He favored a tyrt tax in preference to a toll-gate. !te contended that the tyres should be taxed when the cars arrived in tlie Dominion. He admitted it was difficult for the local bodies to make the tax, and considered the Government should provide the necessary machinery to collect the tax for the local bodies concerned. He considered this form of taj: • would meet with the approval of mo- ' i torists.

To Mr. Spence: He admitted that the tyre tax was not the absolute solution o'f the difficulty, but it certainly was the most equitable. To Mr. Weir: The distance to Opunake from New Plymouth is 40 miles, and the toll on cars is ss, while from Stratford to Opunake it is 30 miles, and the charge for toll is ss, that is 2s fid at each gate. Charles Pcnn, clerk to the Stratford County Council, presented a s:atoment showing the financial position of the county. The annual rate produces £ 12,406 and the total loans amount to £k2i>,oM. They have no declared main roads, but maintenance had to be provided by the riding they were in. The North riding produced £3182 in rates, and out of that amount the main road had £1157 spent on it. Tlie total amount of roads in this riding amount to 52 miles, and a third of the actual revenue was spent on 5 Via miles of the main road to maintain it. There were IS7 miles of metalled roads in the whole county. The rate per square mile was £45, Eltham county paying £4O per square mile, Taranaki county £34 and llawcra- county £7O. He was instructed by the Council in making application to the Government for tlie toll-gate, to state that as soon as the road was in good order the toll-gate would bo abolished. Mr. Fookes mentioned that for \% miles cf the main road running through tine borough the Borough Council owed

£4500. Witness admitted that it would cost about the same to maintain this rond, as the other counties had to pay for their main road. The only reason he could see why the toll-gate was required was in order to give a good road to motorists, and it was only in the interests of them that this money was re-

quired. To Mr. Fookes: The last valuation of the county was made, in 1000. Elthaim, Ilawera and Taranaki had all been revalued since then, and judging by the counties mentioned, the new valuation would be about one-third more. William James Loipdcll, county engineer, said the main road required widening and repairing. The reason it was worn out was primarily owing to its narrowness, the traffic being all congested. The main road was re-metalled two years ago, and again required doing. The by-roads were .being .starved to keep up the main road, and it would be quite impossible to keep it up from the revenue received by the whole of the North riding. Metal cost them 10s per yard, and to attempt to make this road with nine inches of metal and the present width would take 15 years at the present revenue received. At the present rate of traffic on it it would wear out four times in that period. On the Mountain road, besides keeping up this thoroughfare, a new concrete bridge was being built. The annual upkeep of this road was £ISOO per year. The idea was, with the toll-gate revenue, to remetal this road and widen it and put nine indies of metal on, of which three inches would be in tarred macadam, and then rolled. The sum of £3OOO a year would take five years to make this road, and at the expiration of that time, if the. road were in good order, the tollgate would l>e abolished. To Mr. Fookes: About 10 or 12 chains of the road had been metalled, and about two feet of the whole rqad had been widened, and this work would require doing yearly. The Ilawera and Eltham counties had seen the wisdom of tarsealing and consequently did not have to pay for annual renewals with ordinary metal like, the Stratford county had to. He contended that the toll-gate was purely for constructive purposes, and not maintenance. The idea was to construct the road by tar-sealing as the revenue came in. Thomas ISees Anderson, county councillor, said lie owned land in both the Stratford and Eltham counties. At the time the toll-gate was established on the Elthain road he was against it, but after seeing the system working he was satisfied it was the best and fairest system for the maintenance of the main road. The Eltham County Council borrowed for the Mangatoki riding £+2,000 for tar-sealing, and made a point before the poll was taken that they had a toll-gate that would pay the interest on the loan raised. He considered the toll-gate hit the user of the road. To Mr. .Fookes: He did not think they would get more than £IOOO per year from the toll-gate. 'Mr. Hathaway explained the reason why the North' riding had no bridge loan.

This was (ill the evidence. Mr. Vookos said lie did not see why the RraWord comity should bo given this exceptional means of raising money, neither did lie sec any reason why tho

means used by the local bodies should not be utilised by this Council, that is, by raising a loan. lie contended that tiu; cost of construction should be paid by the ratepayers and not through tollgates. On behalf of his clients lie objected to the toll-gate or paying a proportion. The Commissioner pointed out that if the toll were allowed the borough may perhaps under section 10!) be entitled to a proportion of the revenue for the through traffic that traversed the borough road's. Mr. Spence, in reply, pointed out that all the public bodies interested, with the exception of Stratford borough, had no objection to the toll-gate being established, and he' dealt with the Stratford borough objection, contending that the borough had not proved the fact that the road did not require widening or remetalling or that the cost in putting it in order was not correct. He pointed out that the ratepayers in this riding paid one-third of the amount of the revenue received to keep this road open for motorists, and thus were starving their own by-roads. He said the borough wanted the road to he tar,-sealcd, but did not want to pay towards its cost; neither did they want a. toll-gate, but wanted to put the burden on the I settlers. Ho pointed out that there were to be no exceptions in regard to people going through the gate—all the farmers residing on it would have tor pay the toll-charges and also pay rates. Further, the proposed charges were the ' choapest in the Taranaki district. He contended that it was not within tho i jurisdiction of the Commission to suggest a motor tyre tax. He scouted

the idea that Stratford borough would lose the trade coming from Ratapiko and north of the gate. Tn conclusion, he said he was entitled to say that the Stratford County Council was supported in its application by the four county councils eited, and that the application should he granted. •The (Commissioner stated that all parties had had an opportunity of thrashing this matter out, and he would make a "summary of the report and present his recommendation to his Excellency the Governor.