DEVELOPMENT

Road transport, both of passengers and of goods, plays a vital part in the economic life of modern communities. For a country like New Zealand, which is highly dependent for its economic strength upon the activity of its primary industries, the importance of adequate roads is even greater than in most other countries. The nature of our great primary industries is such as to require, for their successful functioning, an extensive and elaborate network of roads extending to all productive areas.

It is natural that roading policy has always loomed large in the politics of New Zealand and, particularly in the earlier decades of development, the provision of roads and bridges was a dominant consideration in the public affairs of the country. The many Acts of the Central and Provincial Governments bear testimony to the incessant demands of the people for road access and it is not surprising that considerable progress has been made over the 120 years during which the country has been developing its industries.

Early Construction

During the 500 years in which the Maori held undisputed control, he must have traversed almost every part of the country, as is evidenced by the Maori place names that survive. But because most of the country, apart from the tussock-covered plains of the South Island, was in thick bush, the rivers, lakes, and harbours, linked by tracks, became the main highways of the Maori people, who also made use of the beaches. In the South Island there was a track down the east coast with a number of other tracks following up the rivers to the passes through the mountains to the West Coast. In the North Island the western coastal track was used throughout the whole length of the Island, but the track on the East Coast left the coast near Castlepoint and rejoined it near Napier.

Water access and beach paths were the only means of communication available to the early white settlers. The years from 1840 on were those of coastal settlement, arid most of the important coastal towns of New Zealand were established in this early period. Wellington, Auckland, and Wanganui were established in 1840, New Plymouth in 1841, Nelson in 1842, Dunedin in 1848, and Christchurch, which is but a short distance from the sea, in 1850. The best form of carriage was still by water and it was almost impossible to move heavy goods far inland. Even so, roads of some kind became a necessity to open up lands for settlement. For the time, some good roads were built, but the best were constructed by the Imperial forces sent to protect the young settlements. The Great South Road from Auckland – called the Khyber Pass because of its loneliness and the danger of attack – and the roads from Wellington to Paekakariki and from Wellington through the Hutt Valley over the Rimutaka Range to the Wairarapa were built under military control and directions. Work began in May 1846 on the two latter, and the Paekakariki road was completed in 1849 and the road to the Wairarapa in 1854. During the Maori Wars in the 1860s and later, there was a similar programme of strategic roading construction in the North Island. Some roads were built by friendly Maoris, and Donald McLean, Native Minister in 1869, said that the Maoris were alive to the advantage of communications and desired nothing more than to excel the Europeans at roadmaking.

Factors Involved in Road Construction

During this early period there were many factors which determined the nature and extent of road construction. The main ones which stand out were the growth of settlement, the type of farming practised, gold discoveries, the vehicles used, the growth of the railway, and the amount of money available.

Early settlements near the coast were mainly those of subsistence – small agricultural areas providing most of the wants of their owners and giving little surplus for exchange. The advent of sheep set the pattern for change, and their movement saw some form of communication established between settlements. At this stage sheep farming did not require first-class roads, as flocks either followed the beach tracks or were shipped along the coast in small vessels to a handy spot and then driven inland. A certain amount of cereal production had developed in the settlements, but it was not until the gold rushes of the sixties that rapid growth in the population increased the demand for these products. Grain, though not as durable as wool, could be held in store after threshing until the next spring if road access was poor.

The year 1882 is taken as a milestone, because it was then that the successful shipment of frozen meat to the London market began, a change which was to revolutionise farming in New Zealand. The freezing of dairy produce followed a little later, and with the building of dairy factories, roads became an important factor in the colony's economy. Milk and cream had to be delivered daily to the factory, which required good communication with the area that it served.

A further factor in roading development was the gold discoveries. Whenever the miners found gold it became necessary to improve, and in many cases provide, the means of access to the gold fields. Stores and machinery had to be transported to the diggings often over rugged terrain. The old tracks along which the miners trudged have, in many cases, disappeared, while others have been improved to form county roads and some are now State highways. Thus the road from Dunedin to Gabriel's Gully and up the Clutha River is today a section of State Highway Number 8. The gold discoveries in the Wakatipu and Dunstan fields led to roads northwards and then eastwards from Dunedin, and the routes followed in those days are in the main now State Highways Number 85 and 87.

The West Coast was next and the gold discoveries there demanded a direct route from Canterbury across the snowy intervening wall of the Southern Alps to the coast. Arthur's Pass was found and the route today is State Highway Number 73. Similarly, roads on the West Coast and on the Thames and Coromandel areas owe their beginning to the discovery of gold.

Another factor in the demand for roads was concerned with the means of conveyance used. The earliest method of carrying goods, apart from water, was by the pack animal, and both horses and oxen were used. As this method was expensive and not altogether satisfactory, every endeavour was made to replace it by a wheeled vehicle; thus the bullock dray came into use. But the bullock, although strong and capable in the mud, was slow, and so came the covered waggon drawn by horses. To get the best from horses a hard-surface road was essential.

Up to 1861 no regular coach services were in operation anywhere in the country and the only means of travel was by foot, horseback, or dray. In that year Dunedin was joined to the Clutha River and the Tuapeka diggings by two coach services. By 1864 it was possible to travel from Christchurch to Invercargill, and Hokitika and Christchurch were joined in 1866. Communication by coach between Wellington and Napier commenced in 1868 and the service to Wanganui was first operated in December of the same year. This last service was extended to New Plymouth in the following year. The Concord coach and the buggy became familiar sights on our roads.

The bicycle made its appearance at the end of the sixties, but it was not until the nineties that large numbers of these vehicles were to be seen on the roads. Whereas in the United States and parts of Europe they led to agitation for good roads, in New Zealand they had little effect. Their importance lay not so much in their use as a means of transport, for this was but slight, but because once again they turned attention to the roads as a means of travelling. It was not long before the cycle had a powerful ally – the motorcar, the first to be imported arriving in Wellington in February 1898. The advent of the motorcar entirely changed the complexion of the roading problem in New Zealand, as elsewhere, and the cry for better roads soon arose. Later on, with the rapid increase in the use of motor vehicles, particularly heavy ones, the position became acute and it was evident that the type of road suitable for slow-moving horse traffic was inadequate for the new era.

Still another factor influencing roading was railway construction. The fact that one day a railway might be constructed between two points was an excuse for not spending too large a sum on the construction and maintenance of a road in that area. For instance, the Commission on Roads and Their Construction reported to the Otago Provincial Council in 1863 that they were “… of the opinion that the wisest and most prudent course will be to accept this position at once and to regard all macadamised roads which may in future be constructed as mere temporary expedients,… to be relieved by railways of the heavier portion of the traffic and to become parish rather than high roads”. The reluctance of the authorities to commit themselves to heavy expenditure where there was a possibility of rail construction is easily understandable. Nevertheless, railway construction often resulted in road construction. Roads were necessary to complete this work and to enable goods and produce to be transported to and from railway stations as new land was opened up. But there was another side to this development. The improved means of transport and the reduction of cost provided by the rail made an extensive type of farming economic. The moving by horse and wagon of large quantities of butter, or stock ready for slaughter at the freezing works, was not practicable along rough roads. It was, however, possible to move these quickly and cheaply by rail, with the result that land which might previously have been suitable only for large stock or sheep runs could now be cut into small holdings suitable for dairying or the fat-lamb industry. This intensification of farming increased the roading required and also the amount that individual roads would have to carry. It is interesting that railway development should have assisted the form of communication which ultimately became its chief rival.

The last factor to be considered was the amount of money available for road construction. Apart from Government grants in the period before the advent of refrigeration, the funds available to the roading authorities were limited to those in the hands of the road boards whose sources of income were not great. The type of farming practised has indicated that the distribution of wealth was uneven. There were a few wealthy squatters and growers of grain, but the remainder of the farming population was on a subsistence level, with a small amount of ready cash obtained from the sales of produce; from work to the roads or from the supply of railway from work on the roads or the supply of railway sleepers. It was not until the nineties that the small farm became a paying proposition. Thus it was some time before there was sufficient surplus for the settlers to pay rates, which would enable the county or other authority to provide them with the class of road they were demanding. Here in part is the reason why so great a pressure was put on the Government to subsidise heavily the costs of local body roading.

For much the same reason in the early years of our history, the various Governments, either central or provincial, were not a great deal better off. Apart from land and gold revenue in the case of the provincial governments, they were dependent for their income mainly on customs duties. Governments with finance based on such meagre resources could not carry out the works necessary for the development of the country and they were forced into borrowing. Only then were sufficient funds available for a public works programme to be commenced, as, for instance, during the Vogel boom of the early seventies.

ADMINISTRATION

The provincial period up to 1876 was one in which a great deal of roading legislation was passed. The six, and later, the nine provinces did their best to legislate roads into existence. In the 24 years of provincial government, over 120 ordinances or Acts relating to roads, their construction, roads boards, toll gates and tolls, main roads, and so on were passed. The provincial councils tackled their roading problems seriously, but they were handicapped by a shortage of funds. At the same time parochialism, which demanded that money raised in an area be spent in that area, led councils to construct roads without regard for the linking up of the colony. Failure to plan for through routes was one reason for the inauguration of the public works policy of the Central Government. Generally the provinces took care of their main roads, and the roads boards, which they had power to establish, constructed and maintained local or district roads.

By 1875 there were 314 roads boards and they did good work in essentially pioneering days. They brought local interest to bear on the problem and greatly assisted the important work of opening up the country and making rural life possible. As the counties were established after 1876 and it became possible for county administrative officers to travel to remote parts of their district to supervise work, there was no need for two bodies and the smaller began to disappear.

Following the abolition of the provinces, the Counties Act and the Public Works Act of 1876 were the effective Acts for much road work. The Counties Act defined the various classes of road and decided who was responsible for the maintenance of them. There were district roads in areas where there were road districts, and county roads in counties without roads districts or where the county had decided to take over some of the more important roads. Finally, there were Government roads, roads which the Government decided to maintain or existed in districts where the Counties Act was not in force and there were no roads boards.

Up to 1922 this system continued in a general way and the county councils carried the main burden of roading construction and maintenance. At the same time the Central Government made a substantial contribution throughout this phase of development, either by the actual construction of new roads subsequently handed over to the counties to maintain, or by the provision of liberal grants, either by way of subsidy or as free grants to assist county councils to construct new roads.

By 1920, when it became obvious that the motor vehicle was rapidly replacing horse-drawn vehicles as the main form of road transport, roading authorities began to appreciate the need for new standards of roading, particularly for the main arterial roads of the country. Road traffic, which hitherto had been almost local in character, began to assume national significance and the provision of through roads was outgrowing the capacity of local authorities.

The growing demand from local authorities for some greater measure of national provision, including finance for roading needs, culminated in the passing of the Main Highways Act of 1922. This marked a milestone in the roading history of New Zealand and laid the foundation for an era of great roading expansion. Under this Act provision was made for the declaration of main arterial roads as main highways, and the control of these roads became primarily a national concern. The administration of this Act was entrusted to the Main Highways Board, comprising two members appointed by the Government, an officer of the Ministry of Works, two representatives of county councils, and one representative of motor-vehicle owners. In the early stages of its operation, the Board declared 5,954 miles of main highways and, by further declarations from time to time, the total milage, including State highways, had been increased to 12,723 miles by 1952.

Funds for the Board's operations were provided from the Main Highways Account, a separate account within the Public Account. Into this account were paid tyre tax, motor-vehicle registration, and licence fees and, following the passing of the Motor Spirits Taxation Act of 1927, the proceeds of the tax on petrol, then at the rate of 4d. per gallon. The Board's share of the costs of main highways was met by means of subsidies to county councils and boroughs under 6,000 in population, which continued to carry out the actual work of construction and maintenance on those lengths of declared main highways within their respective areas. The rate of subsidy has varied over the years, being on a basis of 10s. in the pound in the initial stages and increasing to a general basis of M.H. £3 for L.A. 1.

In 1936 an amendment to the Main Highways Act empowered the Board to classify any main highway as a State highway, the whole cost being borne by the State out of the Main Highways Account. 3,921 miles were declared State highways, leaving 8,193 miles of main highways. Amendments to the Public Works Act in 1947 and 1948 made provision for the declaration of certain highways as motorways. Traffic on these is strictly limited to motor traffic, and access is restricted to specially designed junctions which eliminate cross traffic. Ribbon development fronting motorways is totally prohibited.

National Roads Board

As these later changes were taking place, a new doctrine began to be preached by roading authorities – namely, “the user should pay”. Although motor taxation in various forms became established as an essential source of roading revenue, it was also recognised that some new authority with a fresh outlook and with wider jurisdiction was necessary. The country was investing large sums of money in equipping itself with modern vehicles of size, weight, and loading capacity unthought of before the Second World War and was also paying proportionately large sums for the petrol it used. It had, however, no adequate means of putting the necessary amount of money into a parallel effort to provide itself with the type of road needed in the new transport age. Consequently, on 1 April 1954, the National Roads Board, appointed under the National Roads Act of 1953, took office as successors to the Main Highways Board. The change was made of necessity – a necessity arising directly from the march of years. The 30-year-old financial and administrative system previously in use had been outpaced by the times. As in 1922 and again in 1953, a centralised highway administration tended to develop along lines similar to those in other highly motorised countries like the U.S.A.

Under the chairmanship of the Minister of Works, the Board is an organisation representing private and commercial vehicle owners, counties, municipalities, and the Ministry of Works and Transport Department. The representative nature of the Board enables the widest possible background of knowledge and experience to be brought to bear on roading matters. The Board's chief executive agency is the Ministry of Works. This department provides a Roading Division to supply the Board with engineering and administrative services and which undertakes the construction and maintenance of State highways, including motorways, totalling 7,060 miles. The other agencies are the local authorities, being 122 counties and roads boards who control, maintain, and construct their own 43,850 miles of county roading, and 158 municipalities with their 4,970 miles of streets. The country is divided into 21 regional roads districts, each with an advisory council of similar composition to the Board. These councils make recommendations on local matters.

National Roads Fund

Revenue is derived from road taxation paid by the users, the motorist and commercial operators, in the form of petrol tax, tyre tax, milage tax, registration and licence fees, and heavy traffic fees, and from the Central Government, which contributes £1 million from general taxation. It is an inviolate fund and all taxation paid into it must be used solely for roading purposes. The Board works entirely out of revenue without recourse to loan finance and with no provision for overdraft. (In 1965 the petrol tax was ls. 5¾d.)

Allocation of Funds

The Act, amended in 1959, now defines that, of the annual motor revenue, not less than 51 per cent shall be allocated to State highways; not less than 30 per cent shall be allocated to county roads; and that not less than 14 per cent shall be allocated to municipal streets. This revenue must be used to meet the full cost of maintenance and construction on State highways; to subsidise local authority spending on roading, whereby the National Roads Fund pays 3s. 7d. of the cost; and to provide free grants to local authorities to be spent on roading where special needs can be proved.

Traffic Growth

Broadly speaking, traffic growth depends on the increase in the number of vehicle registrations. The following table shows the total number of vehicles registered at certain periods, and the population at the same date.

At this rate of increase it is possible that by 1973 there could be one motor vehicle to every two people, compared with the present day ratio of one to 2.47, and the number of vehicles could rise to 1.51 million.

It is on this background that future highway planning is based.

State Highways

(a) Classification:

The classification of State highways into categories I, II, or III restricts vehicle loadings to those which the road can reasonably carry without serious damage. Bridges are similarly protected.

(b) Pavement Design:

Highway pavements are designed for axle loadings used in the classification system. Generally they are stabilised base courses with bituminous seals–surface dressings on sprayed binder. This form of surfacing has been used to achieve the maximum sealed milage with a minimum cost, but the demands of heavier traffic are taking toll of these light foundations. Maintenance expenditure is correspondingly very high.

(c) Bridging:

The replacement of bridges, mainly timber, over numerous swift-flowing rivers and streams is a major problem, and fluctuations in steel supplied over the post-war years seriously retarded the bridging effort. The Board places emphasis on the use of local materials; where possible, reinforced or prestressed concrete structures are designed in preference to those in steel.

Summary of Bridging, 1963–64

(d) Motorways:

To ease the mounting congestion of traffic on approaches to, and routes through, the urban areas, the Board has constructed 35 miles of motorway in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin cities. It has further work in hand, including the urban motorway in Auckland. Progress on motorway construction is slower than the Board would wish. Land-compensation costs are high and this governs the finance available for construction. Consequently motorways are being constructed at a rate which is neither economic nor sufficient to overtake the traffic situation, but it is the best which revenue finance will allow.

National Roads Board Expenditure, 1963–64

Land-development Roading

In addition to works financed from the National Roads Fund, the Central Government provides £1 million annually for the construction of access roads through large land blocks being developed by Government departments for land settlement, and for major through roads of national importance. Projects in the latter category are the Haast roading to link Westland and Central Otago; the West Taupo Road; and the Kopu-Hikuai Road across the southern section of the Coromandel Peninsula.

by Dudley John Chapman, B.A., D.P.A., Investigating Officer, Administration Division, Ministry of Works, Wellington.