The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1920. TOLL GATES.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1920. TOLL GATES.

It can well be understood that the chairman of the Taranaki County Council (Mr. J. S. Connett) feels acutely the failure so far of his efforts to obtain some measure of relief for the ratepayers in connection with the cost of making the main roads fit to stand the wear and tear of motor traffic. Without doubt the County has drifted into ■a serious financial position through having failed years ago to adapt its system of road-making to the altered conditions. The first move was to endeavor to put in force certain powers for imposing a special wheel tax, but the opposition thereto was so strong | that the power was revoked. Then, at a meeting, of which the Press was not :■ notified until after it had been held (as by Mr. Connett) a resolution was passed to apply for permission to erect three toll gates in positions that commanded the entrances to and the exits from the Borough of New Plymouth, and Mr. Connett proceeded to Wellington to , interview the Minister in order to back up the request by personal persuasion. There is no need to dwell on Mr. Connett's reasons for avoiding the services of the member for Taranaki in connection with that interview. He claims the right to do what he thinks best, even if he has to do it alone, and that attitude explains a lot. He pins his faith on -the "fortiter in re" methods, and it is not surprising that he vehemently attacked the News at yesterday's meeting. That, of course, is what we expected, and does not concern us in the least. The real point, however, he carefully obscured. He expressed regret at the creation of friction between town and country, when more than anyone else he himself lias been responsible for it. Did he consult the townspeople, whose interests were so vitally affected, in the first place, and see whether some scheme mutually satisfactory could be arrived at? No; he simply promulgated the wheel tax, and did his beit to force upon an indignant province. We don't for a moment believe Mr. Connett would willingly do anything to cause strife between the various parts of Taranaki, but the fact remains no one ha 9 succeeded so thoroughly as he did in ' setting the province by the ears. Really he should be the last one to complain of causing division between town and country, or to take up an aggrieved attitude. There is wisdom in his observation: "partisans to a cause often take a selfish view of things." It is to be hoped he will keep that precept ever in mind, and duly apply it. In the interests of the public, and with tie desire to remove any cause of friction between North and South Taranaki, the relations between which had sensibly improved in recent years, we condemned both the by-law tax and the toll gates, and claimed that the Government should propound a workable and equitable scheme that would provide the required fund and eliminate toll gates. Apparently, the Government has in view the adoption of a tyre tax, and it would, we think, have been wiser if Mr. Connett had waited a little while longer to learn the details of that scheme hinted at in the Budget. The principle involved affects the whole of the Dominion, and must be settled equitably, not by penalising one district in order to relieve another.