GOOD ROADS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1921, Page 7

GOOD ROADS.

AND TOLL-GATES. At a meeting of the Waimate West County Council on Thursday last the chairman briefly referred to an article in the Dominion, giving an interview with Mr. W. Stuart Wilson in regard to roads in Taranaki. In that article Mr. Wilson says : “Good roads have been made possible by the toll-gatbs, which have provided local bodies with the necessary finance. .... He had travelled over many miles of roads smooth almost as billiard tables. . . financed by half a dozen toll-gates, and all the enquiries he had made had convinced him that the system was regarded as a complete success by the people most intimately concerned—the people who used the roads and paid the tolls day by s day.” The chairman remarked that Mr. Wilson must be under the impression that Waimate West roads were so financed. Cr. Long : Mr. Vigor Brown w r ent away with that delusion, and so does everybody else. Continuing, the chairman said that the 'Waimate County was not so financed in any shape of form. They had as great a mileage of tar-sealed roads as any county in Taranaki, and they had done this out of their own resources and without the aid of any toll-gates. Mr. Wilson advocated that counties in New Zealand should go in for toll-gates, but let them consider the economic side of thia suggestion. There were 128 counties in New and if each of those adopted toll-gates and paid only £360 a year to collect toll-gate revenue that would amount to nearly £38,000 for collecting costs alone. But it would probably cost each of them £5OO a year to collect this revenue, or a total of £63,000 a year of money wasted so far as actual road improvement was concerned. That illustrated the absurdity of Mr. Wilson’s proposals. Possibly someone, generously motored Mr. Wilson through Taranaki and paid his toll-gate fees, but when people had to pay every time they passed through and had to pay directly and indirectly on all the material that came through they may not see things in the same light that Mr. Wilson viewed them in. People who lived in a country that had provided first-class roads without 4 toll-gates were not quite so satisfied to pay tolls to go on other counties roads. Cr. Long: And Waimate has made those roads on a lesser rate than was struck in other counties. The chairman condemned tolls because of the cost of collection which was revenue wasted, and also because, whilst they collected revenue from outside traffic, they imposed a double tax on their own people as well. He realised that motor traffic should contribute something towards the upkeep of good roads, but this could best be done by means of a tyre tax collected through the Customs and returned to local bodies by way of extra subsidies. Apparently the Waimate County was going to be further hemmed in with toll-gates. If one county was going to be allowed to add to the existing unmber then all should be given the same privilege, and if it was gding to become the general method of collecting revenue Waimate West would be forced to do likewise and apply for permission to erect toll-gates. As he said, he was altogether opposed to the principle of toll-gates, but apparently the position was going to be forced upon them. If every county then had to follow suit it might demonstrate the absurdity of the position, and lead eventually to the abolition of all tollgates. —Star.