GOOD ROADS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1921, Page 7

GOOD ROADS.

NOT NECESSARILY THE RESULT OF TOLL-GATES. STATEMENT REBUTTED. “The good roads in Taranaki have resulted not from the institution of tollgates, but from the fact that the people in South Taranaki, where the majority of the good roads are, have been willing to mortgage their properties to enable loans to be raised for carrying on road work.” This was the opinion expressed by the New Plymouth Borough Council’s general manager (Mr. F. T. Bell- • ringer), when approached by ‘a Daily » News reporter yesterday in reference to the remarks made by Mr. W. Stuart Wilson, of Wellington, who after a trip in South Taranaki expressed himself as highly pleased with the good roads and for which, he thought, the toll-gates were responsible. In reply to Mr. Wilson’s advocacy of the toll system, Mr. Bellringer pointed out that Taranaki public men were not in favor of it, as had been alleged. This was borne out by the fact that, despite the fact that there are seven toll-gates in Taranaki, a conference of local bodies in Eltham in 1919 passed the following resolution: “That in order to abolish toll-gates, and eliminate objectionable traffic by-laws, and to enable local bodies to successfully cope with the largo and increasing motor traffic, the Dominion conference vigorously urge upon the Government the necessity of increasing the present local body subsidies to 10s in the £ on all general rates collected, and that as a means to providing the necessary funds the Government be asked to sufficiently increase (1) the existing motor-tyre tax; and. (2) existing totalisator tax.” Mr. Bellringer said that the above resolution had since been confirmed by the following: (1) Conference of all municipal authorities in New Zealand; (2) conference of all county councils in New Zealand; (3) annual conference of New Zealand Automobile Union.

Among the local authorities in Taranaki the New Plymouth Borough Council has always taken a strong stand in opposition to toll-gates, and in setting out their objection the general manager raises the following important points:— The establishment of toll-gates is a most reactionary and retrogressive measure, and is probably the most wasteful and expensive method of collection 'of taxation in existence. If only certain selected counties were permitted to erect toll-gates an injustice would be done to such other counties, inasmuch as the selected counties would collect the revenue, notwithstanding that the traffic passed over and damaged the roads of the other counties. Bitter resentment would thereupon of a certainty arise on the part of those counties not permitted to erect toll-gates.

The Utter paragraph sets out one of the main anomalies of this method of collection of revenue, and the case of the New Plymouth Borough Council ,may be cited as a fair example: The borough has sixteen miles of tarred roads, which have been constructed and maintained without the aid of tollgates, but if gates were to he erected on the outside or their boundary the revenue collected would be devoted to the upkeep of non-borough roads, though probably all the traffic which came through the gates would pass over the council’s thoroughfares.

In January of . this year the New Plymouth Council, in communicating with the Minister of Public Works on the subject, expressed the opinion “That in view of the intention of the Govern-

ment to deal with the question of the upkeep of arterial roads in a comprehensive way the applicants for tollgates should be. informed that permission for. establishment of toll-gates will not be considered until the Government has given Parliament the opportunity of dealing with the proposed Main Roads Bill, and the Motor Bill. If these two Bills are passed the agitation for toll-gates will then, no doubt, immediately cease.”