The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1921. TOLL-GATES.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1921, Page 4

The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1921. TOLL-GATES.

The reply of the Minister of Public Works to the deputation of the Taranaki County Council on Saturday last on the subject of the erection of further toll-gates in Taranaki is as surprising as it is illogical. He said , his Department was against toll-gates, yet he consented to hold a commission and abide by its decision. Just before, to another deputation, he said, in connection with framing a railway construction policy, that he had consulted his officers, and was largely influenced by their judgment. Then, on the following day, he said the Government’s scheme to take control of the main roads would be brought down next session. Why, then, hold a commission in the interim to decide as to whether further tollgates should be inflicted on the province? If the scheme is to be a comprehensive and satisfactory one, surely toll-gates will be abolished, as they deserve to be. Should the suggested commission be so ill-advised as to accede to the Taranaki Council’s request, then the Government will be inundated with applications for the erection of other toll-gates. Inglewood is already talking of doing so, encouraged no doubt by the reply of the Minister on Saturday, and Waimate and Egmont will not remain quiet on the subject. The result, in such an event, would be ridiculous, for the whole of the roads of the province would be marked by barriers every few miles. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Department’s officers are against toll-gates, tor they can see what the outcome would be were the policy to be carried out to its logical conclusion. The contention that tollgates and good roads are synonymous terms is a fallacy, because the best roads in Taranaki probably ( are those of the Waimate West County, which has no toll-gates, but whose settlers are penalised by gates on every main road leading to the railway. The Inglewood County Council, at its meeting on Tuesday, complained of the unfairness arising from the Stratford County gate at Waipuku levying toll to the extent of £2500 a year, none of which revenue is available for the upkeep of the main road in the Inglewood County. A letter was read from the Minister of Public Works, in which he stated that all the local bodies concerned, with the exception of Stratford Borough, had originally agreed to the proposal to erect the toll-gate. This is not qujte the case. The local bodies were asked by the commission whether they were prepared to make an annual contribution towards the maintenance of the main road in the Stratford County, based on traffic returns that had previously been taken by the county, or submit to toll-gates. Naturally the neighboring bodies favored the tollgates. IBut did not mean that they regarded the erection of the gate as equitable; only as the lesser of the two evils. In point of fact the Taranaki County Council strenuously objected to all the revenue being retained by Stratford, just as Inglewood is objecting now. It does seem unjust that one county can levy toll on the traffic on the main road whilst others, having much greater mileage of the same road to maintain, are not permitted to participate or receive any outside help. That is the inhsreni inequity vf

toll-gates: they confer an advantage on one district at the expense of others. The only solution is the abolition of all toll-gates, and control on the lines suggested by the Minister for Public Works, with, however, adequate finance, derived, if necessary, from the imposition of a special tax on motors.