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APPENDIX F TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MAIN HIGHWAYS BOARD The Hon. Minister of Works, Wellington. Sir, — In accordance with the requirements of section 24 of the Main Highways Act, 1922, the Main Highways Board has the honour to submit its twenty-third annual Report for presentation to Parliament. The report covers the period Ist April, 1946, to 31st March, 1947. General.—The present length of main highways maintained or subsidized by the Board is 12,476 miles, and particulars of expenditure for the year ended 31st March, 1947, as well as a detailed statement on the position of various works, are shown later in this report. Of the total length of main highways, 3,982 miles, have been classified as State highways. The total expenditure from the Main Highways Account for the financial year ended 31st March, 1947, amounted to £3,031,250, compared with £2,814,522 for the year immediately preceding. It should be noted, however, that, whereas no interest is included in the 1947 figure, the 1945-46 year includes £518,717 for interest. The registration of motor-vehicles has never been higher, and the petrolconsumption is very close to the highest pre-war figure. The amount of heavy traffic now carried on the highways is considerably in excess of that carried prior to the war. During the year the dustless paving was extended by 16 miles and existing sealed surfaces were renewed over a length of 376 miles, being an increase of 90 miles over that of the previous year. The length of new bridging was 3,102 lineal feet, compared with 2,211 lineal feet in the previous period. With the limitation of materials and skilled man-power, the lag in the bridging programme has now become a serious matter, and to help provide against an emergency the Board placed an order for ten Bailey bridges during the year. This is additional to the five Bailey bridges at present available. LegislaUoyi.—Section 7 of the Finance Act, 1946, repealed section 5 of the Finance Act (No. 2), 1943, and the Board was thus relieved of any liability with regard to either interest or principal on an amount of £1,226,000 which was made a liability of the Board in 1930. In order to further assist the Board the Government decided to write off not only the arrears of interest, amounting to £1,416,297 to 31st March, 1946, but also the 1946-47 interest of approximately £520,000. Finance.—The actual income of the Main Highways Account from revenue sources for the financial year 1946-47 amounted to £2,861,016, compared with £2,174,337 for the financial year 1945-46, and £2,814,939 for the financial year 1938-39, which was the previous peak year.

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