N Z BVILDING PROGRESS

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 12, 1 August 1921, Page 269

N Z BVILDING PROGRESS

National Road Policy. The Government’s national road policy recently announced by the Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister of Public Works, is to be welcomed as an indication that, at last, the problem is to be dealt with in the only possible way to achieve the proper results. It is a tardy recognition of the fact that road transit has been revolutionised during the last decade. When horse vehicles were universal, the limits within which these conveyances could be used were so circumscribed that the taxation of the user by a local body fairly covered the. position, and secured a return which in a rough and ready way compensated the reading authorities for expenditure benefiting the road user. But the motor vehicle has so wide a range within a single day that it might take advantage of the facilities provided by fifty local bodies. Local bodies which have, sections of arterial roads to maintain are heavily burdened with a responsibility for which they cannot secure a return, except by the archaic method of the toll-gate. The motor vehicle, given good roads, may become a formidable competitor, within a certain field, of the railway, and it is just as well that same authority should own both types of track and. develop them naturally in accordance with, the demands of the times. Under the Government’s road scheme, attention will first be given to through routes of communication in the two islands. Then, no doubt, more roads will be brought into the scheme, until we have a net-work of good motor routes which will be invaluable in developing the country. The official statement on the subject indicates only the broad general lines of the schemenational control of arterial roads, non-political administration, and a general tax on road users, by way of a vehicle tax and a special tax on tires. There are important gaps to be filled in later, but if Parliament approves the general lines, the rest will easily follow. The character of the road surface, for instance, is an important point. It will also be necessary to protect good roads in future by prohibiting excessive axle loads. Something has been done already by the County. Councils of New Zealand, but the national scheme

should certainly take this factor into consideration, otherwise there will be heavy damage to expensive surfaces through the development of through motor lorry traffic of an unsuitable type. Three American States which have good roads, protect them by a maximum-load regulation for motor vehicles, and their officers see that the law is observed by actual weighing tests on the roadside. The method is drastic. These States have scales which can be quickly brought into use under the axle, and if a load, is found to be excessive, the excess is dumped on the spot, and the motor owner must make his own arrangement to lift it. This protects the reasonable motor owner, who appreciates the procedure, as we find that the " Engineering News Record" of New York thus comments on the system :—" As a matter of fact, right-thinking motor truck operators are not objecting to policies which will conserve the highways for their use. Motor transport will live only so long as the highways are in a condition to carry traffic. In the end, the interests of the highway departments and of the motor vehicle operators are one. Motor vehicle legislation, therefore, should aim not to rule trucks off the road, but rather to strike at those selfish interests which, with a comparatively few trucks of excessive weight, soon render highways useless for other and more conservative operators and the community at large."

Local Body Engineers. It is satisfactory to find that the Acting Prime Minister is sympathetic towards the proposed Bill to ensure that local bodies which receive assistance from the public funds shall employ qualified engineers. The Institute of Civil Engineers will probably encounter some opposition to its measure, because there is always something to be said against making a close corporation, but they can counter this by clearly indicating the qualifications required of a local body engineer, when it will be found, _w e are sure, that the Dominion’s educational institutions provide ample facilities for the necessary education. Sir Francis Bell stated to a

VOL.: XVI. No. 12, MONTHLY.

[Registered as a Newspaper.)

deputation from the Institute that in Australia, the law requires that every local body with a revenue exceeding £5,000 must be advised by a qualified engineer if it wishes to receive Government subsidies. This is quite reasonable, for the waste which can take place as a result of inadequate consideration of expenditure, or the patchwork jobs of the " rule of thumb " planner, would come to a great deal more than the difference in the salaries of a competent and an incompetent engineer. There is an important national aspect to this question, for the local bodies of New Zealand have a total loan indebtedness exceeding 28 millions sterling. How much of this is represented in really good assets ? How much.has been frittered away on ill-considered experiments ? Whatever the result of practical operations, the debt, at any rate, is permanent. The taxing power of local authorities in New Zealand is now well in excess of seven millions sterling per annum. Much of this large sum is expended by the engineering staffs, and a good deal can be wasted by a penny-wise, pound-foolish policy in administrative control. So long as the Institute of Civil Engineers suggests a fair and reasonable method of entering the profession and reaching the standard required to comply with the Act, there should be little trouble in securing the consent of Parliament to its wise measure.

This " Reformed Convict " Colony.

Now and again, New Zealanders receive a severe jolt to their national pride by reading references to their country which show that the outside world hardly realises that they exist. One of the worst instances of the sort has just come under our notice. The " Literary Digest " of New York, which we regard as a particularly well-informed journal in the main, devotes an article in a recent issue to the island nations of the Pacific, and the operation of the mandates under the Peace Treaty. Following its usual course, it works in several clippings from other journals, and then goes on to comment on its own account thus:—" New Zealand, founded as a penal colony by Great Britain, has of recent years gained a reputation as one o f the most carefully and completely governed territories in the world. A law passed by this reformed convict colony, and made effective on May Ist of this year, orders that ' no motion picture film depicting thieving, robbery, murder or suicide shall be permitted to be shown in the Dominion.' The population, in 1919, was estimated by ' The Statesman's Year Book' at 1,139,014, exclusive of some 50,000 native Maoris. The total area is 103,581 square miles, not including the Dominion's new mandate over the former German Samoan Islands, now the Territory of Western Samoa, which adds an area of some 1,200 square miles." Obviously the "Literary Digest" is about 1,500 miles out in its learned comment. Its references apply in a measure to New South Wales, for this

Dominion was never used as a penal settlement. Great Britain only turned to New South Wales as a dumping-ground for convicts when it found the American colonies closed to this form of ompulsory emigration. Many of the convicts who went to New South Wales had committed offences •which, according to our present-day code, were mild, though there was an admixture of the worst class of criminal. However, the original convicts have long ago departed to, we hope, a happier land, and New South Wales can afford to complacently regard outside references to " a reformed convict colony." If its public men really troubled about ill-informed American comment on these lines, they could with every justification turn the tables by some references to the early history of many of the Eastern States of America, for they, too, are " reformed convict colonies."

Control of Trade.

Further evidence of the gradual return to normal conditions in business is afforded by the ending of the coal control arrangement in New Zealand. Thanks to heavy importations from distant South Wales, and an improvement in the Newcastle output, coupled with a diminished demand for overseas bunker coal, the supply in the Dominion has slightly exceeded the requirements, enabling the Railway Department—to the detriment of its current revenue account —to build up its coal reserves in winter. Butter will be the next commodity to pass from official control. The producers, who were glad of Imperial purchase of their outputs when the markets were practically non-existent owing to war conditions, are equally pleased with the prospect of a free market, locally and abroad, at the end of August. Sugar seems likely to remain subject to an agreement with the only important supplying company. As for wheat, the probability is that New Zealand growers will feel less inclined to turn to alternatives, such as fat stock raising, under present conditions, so that there is every prospect of this cereal being produced next season under free market conditions. The New Zealander's fear is always in connection with competition from Australia, in times of glut. The Commonwealth production of wheat fluctuates so badly that it would be unwise to rely on that market for supplies. To ensure a steady yield of wheat for the food of the New Zealand population, it seems reasonable to protect the local grower from outside competition at least* to the extent of imposing on imported wheat and flour the same tariff burden as is placed on New Zealand products by the Commonwealth. As for subsidies, we should imagine that the Government will firmly decline.to continue such a policy. Its efforts to steady the local winter price of butter cost the overburdened taxpayer something like a cool million sterling, which was badly required for things which would have further relieved unemployment.