VEHICLE BY-LAWS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1920, Page 6

VEHICLE BY-LAWS

PROPOSED LEVIES. TARANAKI COUNTY SCHEME. OBJECTIONS BY LOCAL BODIES. The proposal of the Taranaki County Council to institute a vehicle licensing by-law again conies under public notice with the sitting of the Commission of Ertquiry at the New Plymouth Courthouse yesterday, to hear objections from local bodies. The Commissioner (Mr. L. B. Campbell, District Public Works Engineer, Stratford), presided. 4 It will be recalled that the County scheme was inaugurated in October of last year, and the proposed charges on vehicles raised considerable protest at the lime, and as the result of the various boroughs and counties making representations to the Government, the enforcement of the regulation waR delayed pending inquiry. The proposed animal tax! varied from £5 to £lO for motor cars, according to seating capacity; motor trucks and lorries £5 to £2O; motor cycles, £1 to £1 10s; gig, 10s; drays, £1 to £1 10s. Reviewing the history of the by-law. the i Commissioner said that last year, apparently finding the cost of maintenance pretty high, the County considered that part of the cost should be borne by those users of the road who came from outside and contributed nothing by way of general rates. In October the by-law was instituted taxing vehicles which used a road within the county, and which were owifed, driven or managed by a person whose usual place of residence was within the Taranaki provincial district from Hawera northwards. SCOPE OP INQUIRY. The order of reference of the Commission was to enquire: (1) Whether the cost of maintaining and repairing roads in the Taranaki County is greater per mile of road than in any of the Counties adjoining; (2) Whether the cost is such as would, if met wholly out of the proceeds of the general rates, leave the Council with insufficient funds to carry on such other functions as were made a charge on the general Tates; (3) Wheth-. er any substantial part of repair and maintenance is rendered necessary by through vehicle traffic; (4) Whether the "through" traffic is greater in the County of Taranaki than in the adjoining counties; (5) Whether in the event of the answers to the two last preceding questions being in the affirmative, the revenue estimated to be derivable from the enforcement of the bylaw with respect to vehicles passing through the County would he more or less than reasonably necessary to repair damage to roads within the County caused by such vehicles; (6) Whether generally the enforcement of the by-law would he unjust to, or inflict hardship upon owners of vehicles throughout the province of Taranaki, or the license fees imposed are unduly high or in any other way oppressive or unreason-' able; and whether it is calculated to operate unfairly; (7) What would be the\ effect of other County Councils in Taranaki enforcing Try-laws similar in effect to the said by-law; (8) Whether generally there is any good reason why the Taranaki County Council should have powers with 'respect to the licensing of vehicles., and the imposition of license fees not possessed by the County Councils of Stratford, Egmont, Eltham, Whangamomona. Hawera and Waimate West Counties. NO DEFENCE. Mr. Campbell expressed regret that the County was not bringing forward an organised defence, and therefore deprived the enquiry of the help which would be derived from the leading of proper evidence in support and justification of the sten the County took. Mr. A. H. Johnstone, who appeared on behalf of the New Plymouth Borough Council, and conducted the case for opposing bodies generally, also expressed regret that the Taranaki County had not seen fit to attend or tender any evidence. The greater part of the case had been set up to combat that put forward by the County, and in the absence of the information which the latter would give it would be more difficult to present the case. x , COSTS OF MAINTENANCE. The first witness was Charles J. Belcher, chairman of the ETtham County Council. He said that abouir ten years ago his county recognised that different methods would have to be used, and they went in for tar-sealing to reduce cost of maintenance. There were now about GO miles of tar-sealed roads in the county. The total mileage was 218. The bulk of his county was not assisted by the railway in relieving the roads from traffic. The Eltham to Awatuna route carried probably the heaviest traffic in New Zealand outside a city. A large amount of this traffic came from the Egmont County. Prior to going in for tar-sealing the cost of maintenance had reached about £3OO per mile; since going in for tar-scaling this had been reduced to fully half, the present cost being £l5O. which, it had to be remembered, was influenced by the ruling high prices. Regarding the relative cost of maintenance in the two counties, he thought roiiding ought to cost less in the Taranaki County. What was termed '•through" traffic had been considerably increased with (lie advent of the motor. He would say that his County had more of this class'of traffic than the Taranaki County. If all the counties put on a similar tax a man going through the county in a five-seater motor car would have to pav a total of £25. Freedom of access to the port was important from the point of view of the rest of Taranaki. Replying to the Commissioner, the witness said his county's valuation was £ 1,000,000. this being made in 15114. The rales ransed from 2}d to 3d. They found some difficulty in carrying on, but the roads were not going back. The tarsealing policy had been the saving factor. Hickman F. Russell, valuer, said he was now engaged on a re-valuation of the Taranaki County and Inglewood County. As the result of his observation he believed the net result would by arise in the unimproved value of not less than To per cent. This was at a safe estimate. The. last valuation was made in 1012. , A NEW COUNTY. George S. Whiteside, engineer to the Inglewood County Council, said there were about forty miles of main roads. No lengths had been tar-sealed. The | parts taken over from the Taranaki , County were in a bad state of raaintenj ance, and bad not been built up to stand i modern .iraffifl. jThe uovement for s»-

cession, lie had learned from the ratepayers, was due to dissatisfaction with the administration of and non-progres-siveness on the part of Taranaki. At the present time each county was bound to carry a bigger proportion of foreign fl-affic than hitherto had been the case The by-law would tend to prevent the use of the Taranaki roads by people at the other end of the province. CLASSES OF TRAFFIC. E. Day, chief inspector, New Plymouth Borough, gave particulars of a week's tally taken of traffic passing in and out of the borough of New Plymouth. Of this traffic 43.5 d per cent, originated in the Taranaki County. Of the whole traflic 47.7 per cent, came into New Plymouth. Thomas McPhillips, chairman of the Waimate West County Council, said his Council adopted the system of tarred roads because tliey found that with the class of traffic it was not possible to maintain the old metalled roads satisfactorily. They now had 47 miles ortar macadam roads, and were able to keep up a better road at the same rate until recently; high costs of materials now compelled an increase. Generally speaking, there was heavy traffio in the county. He expressed himself as absolutely against the proposed vehicle bylaw as unfair, and his council were also unanimous in this opinion. Supporting evidence was given by J. B. Sutherland (Mayor of Inglewood), Alfred Corkill (Inglcwnod County), Edward Walter (Stratford County),' C. E. Pease and James Young (Egmont County), E. H. Piggott and C. F. Dowsett (Clifton County), Philip Skoglund (Stratford Borough), J. A. Campbell (Eltham Borough), Richard Morgan (Waitara Borough, Thos. Julian, of Warea (Egmont County), and Bobert Dunn (president of the Farmers' Union). THE COUNTY'S CASE. The Taranaki county clerk (R. Ellis) outlined the position of his Council. He said the revenue was getting less and less. Last year the receipts were £125,559, and the expenditure £27,477. On March '3l, I*2o, the overdraft was £7440, and now was £16,271. The limit was £19,500, so that they had only a small margin to work on. The valuation was made in 1912-13, and the unimproved value totalled £816,629. They we're rating up to the maximum as follows:—Mangorei riding, 5 l-8d; Waitara, 413-16 d; Oraata, 4 9-18 d; Okato, 4%d. It was estimated that the revenue derived from the proposed tax would be between £2OOO and £3OOO. They had made a commencement with the collection of the tax on cars, and about 25 had been licensed. To Mr 1 . Johnstone: They collected £IBOO in toll on the Main South Eoad. The object of the by-law was not to induce the ratepayers to vote for a £40,000 loan. It was not merely an' indirect means of drawing the Government's attention; the Council's idea was to get revenue, seeing the Government was doing nothing to help the Council. They had put a remit before the Colinties' Conference on two occasions in favor of a tyre tax; if such were instituted, the vehicle by-law would, no doubt, be withdrawn. In regard to the Commission, his Council was pla'ced in the position that it could not offer any evidence. If the valuation was put up 75 per ctfnt. they would have a fair margin to work on. There were occasions when the Council did not employ an engineer to deal with the maintenance work. He did not know why the Council had not previously adopted a policy of putting down tarsealed roads. Other counties were in difficulties regarding the maintenance of roads; Wanganui, Kairanga, and others were endeavoring to. secure toll-gates, and some had written inquiring for particulars of the wheel-tax. Taranaki had to carry a larger proportion of traffic than other counties in the province. The intention in regard to the tax was to collect from Clifton, Stratford, and New Plymouth borough, Egmont to be exempted because there was a toll-gate on the route. THE NEW PLYMOUTH BOROUGH. The position of the New Plymouth borough was put forward by Mr. F. T. Bellringer (general manager). He said he did not know of any reason why the cost of maintenance should lie higher in the Taranaki County than in the other areas. Anyone coming into the borough had to travel over at least two miles to get to the centre of the town. No revenue was received from the county towards the upkeep of the roads. The Council had found the burden fairly heavy.\ The welfare of the borough and county was largely inter-dependent. When the wheel tax proposal became known the Council convened si conference of local bodies, and a resolution was passed condemning the move. The opinion was expressed that the imposition of the tax was unjust. It was the opinion of all progressive bodies that motor traffic had come to stay, and must be catered for. Seeing that New Ply-' mouth was at the far end of the district, the making of a similar by-law by other counties would naturally' have a bnd effect on the town. .Mr. Johnstone briefly traversed the evidence. He said the questions submitted to the Commissioner, though eight in number, really related as to whether or not the Order-in-Council authorising the by-law should be revoked. The power was first given to the Governor-in-Couneil to make such an order in 1893, so that it was not a new thing. This was, therefore, the first time in 27 years that the powers had been invoked, and it was significant that Taranaki was the only county to do so. The statute was, no doubt, a dead letter till it was discovered by the industry of someone and held out to the Taranaki county ratepayers a? a bait to the carrying' of the loan. There were twelve counties which had the power, and to-day there were sixteen, but there was no other instance of anyone invoking the powers. He claimed that a strong ease should be made out before the Taranaki county should be given these extraordinary powers. There must always be a certain amount of give and take in the matter of traffio on roads. The roads in any district had to be kept up by the local body concerned, which also had to bear the burden of damage caused bv persons from outside—at any rate to the extent to which they themselves used the roads of outsiders. Owing to the increase in foreign traffic, counsel forecasted that some different system would probably have to be evolved i re< garding the maintenance of roads. EVIDENCE CONCLUDED. There was no evidence, said counsel, that the cost of road maintenance was greater in the TaYanaki county than elsewhere. He submitted that the only answers possible to the questions before the Commission would be ones which would indicate to his Excellency the GovernorGeneral the advisability o,f repealing the Order-in-Council. ' j The Commissioner mdmated that a report would he ma* tit the Governor in due course, /