Pastures Past: 1930s rural roads - from petrol tax to modern transport

Country roads in the 1930s were often muddy and dusty, posing travel challenges. Photo / Ross Setford

Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day.

Rural roads, petrol tax, bridge reconstruction, motor accidents, mud, and dust.

These were the joys of life in the country and the roads that had to be travelled in the 1930s.

According to the target="_blank" rel="" title="https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHBP19500615.2.23?">Central Hawke’s Bay Press, things weren’t much better in June 1950.

It reported that the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Bodkin, was concerned about the state of country roads and the problem of road systems breaking up under the strain of modern transport.

He said roads and bridges needed to be built to carry heavier and faster-moving traffic.

We are still facing a lot of the same problems today.

Cost of rural roads

Assistance to counties.

Mr. A. E. Jull’s proposal.

Extra tax on petrol.

New Zealand Herald, July 3, 1930

[By telegraph - own correspondent.]

In his presidential address at the conference of the New Zealand Counties’ Association, Mr. A. E. Jull, chairman of the Main Highways Board, outlined the position with regard to the maintenance of country roads, and mad the suggestion that rural roads should be assisted uniformly from the petrol tax.

“When the petrol tax was imposed,” he said, “it was understood that about one-fourth of the amount would be devoted toward assisting counties in maintaining roads which were not originally declared main highways. The Main Highways Board carried out this arrangement by declaring about 3800 miles of secondary highways. The board’s contribution with respect to these roads in 1928-29 was £148,000, and for the year just past will probably be £250,000.”

Excerpt: Read the rest of this article here.

Rerating of farm lands

Wanganui Chronicle, January 17, 1931

The rating of rural lands for the maintenance of our public roads, when instituted, and up till within the past thirty years, was a perfectly fair tax as the roads were used almost entirely by the rural community, but now conditions of traffic have entirely changed and it would just be as equitable to charge farm lands with the railway deficit as with road maintenance.

The whole scheme of conveying the travelling public has been revolutionised and no statistician could even guess whether city or rural dwellers use our public roads most.

We have of course the Highways Board which contributes towards the maintenance of certain defined roads but the payments have not in any degree lowered our county rates although they have admittedly helped to improve our roads but only for motor traffic.

To suggest now that our whole system of roading should become a public charge is only foreshadowing what will eventually happen probably within the next decade, and some proposal to do so may be brought forward at the next election.

The writer is not concerned with this latter phase of the question but is merely drawing attention to what is under changed conditions an unjust burden on rural lands.

The expenses of administration of county funds throughout New Zealand alone must amount to a huge total and is borne solely by farmers, who have also to support Rabbit, River, Power, Hospital, Meat, Dairy, Fruit and Honey Boards, the combined revenues of which amount to several millions sterling per annum.

Speed problem

(Press. Assn.—

Restriction essential on country roads

An expert review

-By Telegraph—Copyright).

Rotorua Morning Post, December 31, 1932

Wellington, Friday.

An official analysis of the causes which led to 185 fatal motor accidents for the year ended last March shows that 37 were directly attributable to excessive speed under the circumstances.

In five cases the speed did not exceed 20 miles per hour; in 19 it was below 35 miles, and in 13 the speed exceeded 35 miles per hour.

That the roads of the Dominion generally are not suitable for high speeds is stressed by the Transport Department.

In the whole Dominion there are over 46,000 miles of formed rural roads, of which 31,000 miles are surfaced, and of this total approximately 11,000 miles are. main highways.

“When the motor vehicle began to assume importance in the land transport system, the Dominion,” states the report, “was in a particularly bad position to deal with this new form of transport. The rural roading system consisted of from 30,000 to 40,000 miles of narrow roads, partly gravel surfaced, and, as the maximum mileage for minimum cost had been the governing factor in road construction, the alignment was generally bad, with curves of one chain radius, sudden changes of grade, and narrow bridges the rule rather than the exception. In other words, the rural roads had been built to accommodate traffic consisting largely of slow-moving horse-drawn vehicles, and of a very low density, and were quite unsuited to the fast-moving motor vehicle and the relatively dense road traffic of to-day.”

Excerpt: Read the rest of this article here.

- Source: Papers Past