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Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1919, Page 4

THE MOTOR AND THE ROADS. Suffering from the disabilities of bad by-roads ' for many years, perhaps it is not surprising that one speaker declaimed bo vehemently about county ratepayers having to provide roads for men in towns who "worked only 36 hours a week" and drove about in motor cars. But it may be pointed out that even these leisured and affluent gentlemen contribute through the toll-gate and the Consolidated Revenue, from which the County Council derives its subsidy. They have also to pay rates in the town, which, by the way, are just fifty per cent, more on the respective rateable values than tliey are in the county, not taking into consideration at all the special rates in the borough for auclj services as trams, lighting, sewerage, etc. The motor is no longer a luxury of the favored few; it is being recognised as a necessity by the country settler, and it has played, and is playing, a big part in the enhanced prices being obtained for land in the coastal district. Six years ago Opunake was a day's journey from New Plymouth; to-day it is about two hours' run. Properties in the intervening district that six years ago could have been purchased for from £2O to £25 an acre are to-day commanding from £4O to £45. It may be added .that for taxation purposes the land values remain the same, for the reason that there has been ho fresh" Government valuations in the interim. So that, whilst the motor is forcing councils to revise their road-making methods, it is far from being an evil from the. standpoint of the fanpor, It nlso may be pointed out that there never has been any suggestion that county ratepayers should be made to pay for the use of th? borough streets, which they . freely ,use, though the county desires to stiffly borough residents for the use of its roads. It is, however, qtiite unnecessary to import, the towi) versus country element into the question. Both town.and country are inter-dependent. What serves' one Serves the other; what injures one injures both. The point is that county ratepayers will reap a direct and substantial advantage from endorsing the loan proposals and putting down tar-sealed roads, however late the council has been in Adapting its methods to suit the changed waffle conditions, irrespective altogether of any extraneous aid, such as the wheel tax. No motorist will object to paying a tax if the money is used for road improvement, but he objects to one local body exercising a power to tax him for using its roads that should properly belong solely to the Government. The unfairness of the tax i&, of course, recognised by the council, which contends that it Is driven to it. It has, however, yet to prove that its financial position is such as to render inadvisable or inexpedient the postponement of the operation of the olmoxioiis' : feJfS-tttM JJmg *g th* XiUMftki

and other Swil bodies in combination press upon and Induce ,the Government to increase the subsidy to, local bodies carrying undue through traffic, like the Taranaki County Council.