GOOD ROADS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1921, Page 10

GOOD ROADS.

THE BASIS OF BETTERMENT. MR. STUART WILSON AND TOLL GATES. ■REPLY TO TARANAKI CRITICISM. “Perhaps I was more definite in my statements regarding toll gates than the facts warranted,” said Mr. W. Stuart Wilson in reply to some criticism of his recent advocacy of the Taranaki system as a method of obtaining good roads. “I certainly had no intention of suggesting that toll gates were good things in themselves. My point was simply that the toll gates have been proved in Taranaki to be a practical method of obtaining good roads. If there is a better method of attaining the same end, well and good. But don’t let us spend the next ten years, as we have spent the last ten years, in fruitless discussion and the passing of ineffective resolutions. “I wish to say most emphatically that I do not believe in toll gates for road betterment in New Zealand except as offering the line of least resistance, or, as the Auckland Weekly News said, in commenting upon the proposal, as “a policy of desperation.” The Auckland journal added that it hoped the Minister of Public Works would hasten the completion of his scheme for road improvement, and produce his proposed Motor Bill for examination by those concerned.

“At a meeting of the Wellington Motor Club held recently, Mr. L. A. Edwards, president of the Wholesale Motor Trades Association, offered to go to Taranaki and report on the toll-gates question. He asked how it was that Victoria, the United States, and other places had good roads without having toll gates. Mr. Edwards is a newcomer in the fight for good roads in New Zealand, and. he does not seem to understand that New Zealanders as a body, (and I am sure that most returned soldiers will bear out this statement) are not really progressive people, when their activities are compared with those of some other nations. We have a few conservative Ministers, who take a tremendous amount of convincing before they will work energetically on progressive lines. That is why I say that we cannot afford to the methods by which Taranaki people have provided themselves with good roads. The Taranaki people summed up the situation, and instead of holding meetings and passing resolutions as to what the Government or the other fellow should do, they have tackled the problem in a business-like way.

“The Minister of Public Works has announced' that he is going to appoint a committee to go into the question of toll gates. This looks to me like another excuse for delaying bringing down the promised Bill. It seems to me as clear as the sun shining at midday that the roads question in New Zealand is going to be used for party purposes in order to win the next genera l ! election. My purpose in bringing the matter before the public is to impress upon them the alarming economic loss that is now proceeding owing to our bad roads. Wellington people have a concrete example in the Hutt Road, between the city and Petone. At a low estimate £28,000 is being thrown away every ten years on this road. We are losing this money, and we are at the same time enduring the inconvenience and loss caused by a bad main road that has to be used ’by thousands of vehicles. The continual hanfcnering of our bad roads destroys vehicles of every type. Such roads are the worst sort of investment; to retain them when they could be improved by practical methods is downright lunacy. “The New Plymouth Borough Council’s manager, Mr. Bellringer, replying to statements made by me, has said that a conference of local bodies held in Taranaki in 1919 passed a resolution disapproving of the toll gates, asking that the Government should subsidise local rates to the extent of 10s in the £l, and suggesting that for this purpose the Government should increase the tyre tax and the totalisator tax. He added that this resolution had since been confirmed by a New Zealand conference of municipal authorities, by the County Councils’ Conference, and by the New Zealand Automobile Union. That is the sort of thing that has been going on all over New Zealand for the last ten years—while Taranaki has been getting good roads. It does not require a financial genius to realise that the Minister of Finance cannot subsidise local rates to the extent of 10s in the £l, and it is well known that the totalisator tax has been raised already to the breaking point. Prominent racing men state that the taxation is making racing' unprofitable, and that further increase will merely kill the goose that is laying this particular golden egg. “On its transportation facilities depends the industrial development of any country. Taranaki is the wealthiest portion of the Dominion, and this fact can be attributed directly to good roads. I am perfectly well aware that Victoria and some parts of the United States have good roads without having toll gates but we have to face facts as they exist in New Zealand at the present time We have a conservative Government in power supported by conservative people, and if we are to attain the end in view, that is, the speeiy improvement of the roads, we must lake the means at our disposal. The Minis-

ter has stated that he is going to appoint a committee to consider the tollgates question. I think it would be better if he appointed a committee consisting of, say, four prominent business men and two expert road engineers, to investigate the whole question of road construction, and report as to the methods most suitable for use in this country. A report of this nature would enable us to concentrate our efforts and make sure that whatever steps were necessary were taken without delay by the Government and Parliament. z “I would just add that the roads question requires to be dealt with on a. national basis. We don’t want an occasional toll gate put up on a bad road merely as a. method of raising some revenue for a local body. If a toll gate were placed on the present bad road between Petone and Eastbourne, for. example, I think that the people who were being penalised would be quite entitled to pull it down, and I would not hesitate to assist them. But x don’t think any of us would object to the payment of tolls if we got the good roads.” Mr. Wilson mentioned that he hoped to see the activities of the Good Roads Association extended throughout New Zealand. This association, formed in 1918, had for its object the obtaining of legislation dealing with the roads question on the lines of the Victorian statute and such other measures connected with road improvement as might be decided! —Dominion.