|/i^^^- ^^^. 5B.^.^j^^^c AP ^ MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. By E. W. HAECOURT, ESQ., MP. LONDON: CORNELIUS BUCK, 22 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1882. V Entmtieti Speecfi, ON MOVING A RESOLUTION THAT RELIEF SHOULD BE GIVEN TO RATEPAYERS PROM THE UNJUST INCIDENCE OF RATES LEVIED FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS IN ENGLAND. February 24, 1882. PREFACE, A MAN would be unreasonable if he were not satisfied when he had obtained all that he asked for. Under these feelings I acceded to Mr. Gladstone's request that I should not move the Eesolution of which I had given Notice in the House of Commons when I was in pos- session of the House on Friday the 24th of February. I did so, however, under certain conditions, which I now wish to place upon record. 1. That the immediate relief which Mr. Gladstone has promised to the ratepayers in respect to main roads shall not be made a fulcrum for a lever to set a County Government Bill on its pedestal, but shall be totally independent of any other legislation, 2. That the promised relief shall not be given by shifting the burden which now rests upon the land from one shoulder to the other, or by making the owner pay the whole or part in lieu of the occupier. I also wish to state that I had other methods of pay- ment to suggest beyond those which I mentioned in the House of Commons ; and I have, moreover, obtained a great deal of evidence which those by whom it was sent to me desired to be made public. For these reasons, I have determined to print the facts that I have collected, for distribution amongst Members of the House of Commons ; and, to save trouble, I have left them in the form in which I had arranged them when I was expecting to address the House. E. W. HARCOUKT. MAINTENANCE OF MAIN EOADS. ALTHOUGH there are many in this House who may not be inclined to look upon a Eeport drawn up by the House of Lords as infallible, yet, as the Eeport of the Select Committee on the Highway Acts is founded entirely upon the evidence of 72 credible witnesses, and is drawn up with evident impartiality, it at any rate deserves our respectful consideration. On page 19 of the Eeport of the Lords' Committee, we read — " That the Committee is unanimous in the opinion that relief in some form should be provided by the more equal distribution of a charge which now falls almost exclusively on one description of property." The old liability of personal property for the maintenance of roads has never been altered, and is alluded to in Acts of Parliament which relate to the subject. Even when turnpikes were done away with, the principle which they involved of those who used the roads being the persons to pay for them was never questioned. The right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted last Session that personal property was liable in respect to the maintenance of highways ; but he made this extraordinary addition to his statement — namely, that — " Every sixpence you take off the rates in agricultural districts in this country, while it is an immediate relief to the tenant, is an ulti- mate gift to the landlord, and in the end comes out of the pocket of the labourer ; and this (he said) it was the object of Torj'ism to keep out of view." Now, in respect to relief to main road maintenance, this remark was totally irrelevant. What has thrown the whole weight of that maintenance unjustly upon the occu- piers of land has been the abolition of turnpikes ; and it 2 MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. would be a simple absurdity to assert that the more equal distribution of this charge would add to the value that land stood at before the abolition of turnpikes, or would put one farthing into the pockets of the landlords. I think, instead of Toryism practising any concealment, it is Liberalism which is endeavouring, somewhat unfairly, to set class against class in a particular industry. But it is not my desire to enter the lists as a polemic. I see no reason why this should be made a Party question, and I will now pass on to the subject of my Motion. It is unnecessary for me, and it would only complicate mj' case, to enter any more upon the general question of local taxation. It will be sufficient for me to allude roughly to the fact that we may put the income of the country at £900,000,000, and we may assume that only about £250,000,000 are assessed for local rates; at any rate, that is somewhere about the proportion. I will, however, confine myself to the matter of highways. I believe I may take it that there has never been any question but that visible personal property, in common with real pro- perty, was always held accountable for the maintenance of highways, up to the time of the establishment of turnpikes. The turnpike system involved an eminently just principle — namely, that those who used the roads should pay lor them. There were abuses in that system, as there will be in every system, and at last the trusts got so clogged with debt that an inadequate portion of the money paid by traffic was expended for the benefit of the public. Some of us may be excused for thinking that a sweeping reform of turnpike management would have been the best way of meeting the abuse, and that the principle of making the users of roads maintain the roads should have been upheld. However, turnpikes are gone, and I think we may make up our minds that we shall not see them again ; but, what is worse, with the turnpikes is gone also the memory of former liabilities to repair, and this is a memory which we hope to revive. Giving up, then, the idea of re-establishing turnpikes, our first consideration is — b}' what other method can we reach the users of the roads ; and, supposing that we fail in doing this to the necessary extent, how can we most justly apportion the maintenance of main roads amongst those whom they benefit 1' I cannot myself hold MAINTEN^ANCfc: OF MAIN ROADS. 6 with the recommendation of the Lords' Committee that we should have but one class of road. It appears to me that unless we di'aw some distinction between the class of road which is the successor of the turnpike road and other highways, we shall cut from under our feet the ground of our chief complaint — namely, that the doing away with turnpikes has thrown a burden upon real property, which, by law, personal property should share with it. It would be impossible entirely to separate the matters of maintenance and management, and those who make propositions in respect to the one are bound to show that they have likewise considered the other. And here we are met by another difficulty — namely, that the requirements of dififerent parts of the country are different ; but I do not think the difficulty is insuperable. I suppose I may take it for granted that those who are interested in these matters have read the Report of the Lords' Committee, and perhaps some have, like myself, gone through all the evidence. At any rate, there it is for anyone to read, and therefore I shall not trouble the House by making any extracts from it. I should like, however, to be allowed to tell the House how 1 have obtained a great deal of evidence which, I venture to think, is of some value, and which may be of material assistance to those who wish to know the feelings and opinions of the ratepayers themselves throughout Eng- land. I took means, in the first instance, to ascertain the views of authorities and ratepayers in a certain district ; I then formulated these views, and put them forth in the form of a Circular, which was sent to the Chairman of every Highway Authority and Board of Guardians in England and North Wales. And here, if the House will permit me to do so, I should like to take this opportunity of thanking all those who have so freely and so courteously sent answers to my Circular. I value very much the individual answers I have received from Chairmen of Highway Authorities and Boards of Guardians ; but I value even more the answers which have been sent to me after full discussion by the Boards, and, in some instances, after my Circular had been distributed to all the ratepayers. The object I had was rather to draw forth the opinions of others than to dis- 4 MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. seminate any views of my own, and that object was fully satisfied. I will endeavour not to bore the House with interminable statistics; but I think it might interest some hon. Members to hear a few of the answers I received to my Circular, and then, perhaps, I may be allowed to draw a few con- clusions from them. Well, then, first as to maintenance. I know, of course, that the only person who has power to determine how the principle, which I hope to induce the House to affirm — namely, " That immediate relief should in some form be afforded to the ratepayers from the present unjust incidence of rates levied for the maintenance of main roads in England," is the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; though I fear, from what has lately fallen from him in a speech to his own ten- ants, he is meditating the imposition of greater burdens upon the agricultural class, and wishes to tax yet more heavily the successors to the least remunerative property in England, who do not probably use the public roads one- quarter as much as others of their fellow-countrymen who are equally liable to maintain them. I will, however, proceed to mention a few of the sugges- tions which have been sent to me. These suggestions, most of them, include the way in which it is desired that aid should be given ; they are sent to me from every county in England, and include the opinions of Courts of Quarter Sessions, of Boards of Guardians, of Highway Boards, of Urban and Eural Sanitary Authorities, of Local Boards, of County Highway Committees, and of District Chambers of Agriculture. I have classified them to the best of my ability. Of course, I cannot say that these suggestions include all the opinions which are held by my corre- spondents ; but, at any rate, they probably give opinions on the matters which they think of most consequence. I find 32A per cent think that main roads should be paid for, in the first instance, from the County Rate, and that half the cost should be repaid to the County by Parliament, from some appropriated tax or licence, or otherwise ; 2 per cent agree in this view, excepting that they are of opinion tliat repayment should bo made from the Consolidated Fund ; 2 per cent think the whole cost of maintenance of MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. O main roads should be repaid to the County ; 19 per cent want help from Parliament, but do not define what they want ; and 2 per cent wish to see turnpikes restored ; 17^ per cent give special plans of their own ; 17 per cent give no opinion as to maintenance ; and only 2^ per cent declare that they do not think any assistance is required. Thus we have 75 per cent wishing for assistance of some sort, beyond the present available means for road mainten- ance. The special proposals include suggested taxes upon horses, upon carriages, extraordinary taxes for traction engines, brewers' drays, timber waggons, and waggons drawing heavy weights, a wheel tax, a terminal railway goods' tax, a tax on all animals using the roads, a per- centage on sale of wood in woody countries, gun licences, game licences, stamps, armorial bearings, servants, house tax, inhabited house duty, and a twopenny income tax on personal property. Where a wheel tax or carriage duty is mentioned, a wish is almost invariably expressed that the impost should be graduated, as between species of vehicle and breadth of wheel. One or two deprecate a wheel tax for fear of its pressing heavily on the agricultural interests; a tax on horses is advocated by very few ; but there is great con- cordance in calling for large contributions from traction engines. Captain Gatton's evidence before the Lords' Committee on the subject of traction engines must have forcibly struck every hon. Member who has studied it. The objection in my mind to many of these suggestions is, that in several instances you would, if they were carried out, be making use of a tax taken from persons who, perhaps, did not much use the roads. The horse and carriage tax would present an appearance of being most apposite ; but here, again, we are met with difficulties. The horse tax was lately remitted, and I think those whom it is proposed to benefit would object very strongly to its being re-imposed, unless exceptions were made, which I am not very sanguine about the Chancellor of the Exchequer's con- senting to. Then, as to the carriage licences, the greater amount of these licences, amounting to over £540,000, are collected in towns ; and therefore, very naturally, the in- habitants of towns would expect to receive the lion's share of assistance from them. The difficulty of adjusting the contributions, as between town and country, is, of course. 6 MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. very great. Even where urban districts contribute to the county rate, the complaint of the rural ratepayers is that the collection of the rate is a very unfair one. Take the case of A and B, both persons witla a like sum invested in business. A, a farmer, living in the country, pays a road r.ite on an assessment of, we will say, £500 at Gd., equal to £12 10«. B, a trader, living in the town, pays a road rate on an assessment of, say, £45 at 6d., equal to £l 2«. 6d. ; and B probably uses the public roads with seven times the horse aud carriage power of A. Then, again, the cost of maintaining urban main roads is about double that of main- taining rural main roads (as 60 to 30); so that I think it is evident that, whatever scheme is adopted, some fair graduated scale of rating will have to be established as be- tween urban and rural districts And here I must mention a very ingenious suggestion which I received from Hereford- shire. Captain Power, Chairman of the Board of Guardians at Ross, when writing on this subject, advised that a graduated wheel tax should be applied to all vehicles, and be used, in common with the road rate, for the maintenance of public highways ; but, to neutralize the inequality of the road rate as between town and country, he proposed that in the country, where the road rate was inordinately high, the wheel tax should be deducted from the road rate, and in towns, where the road rate was very low, it should be deducted from the wheel tax ; but 1 will give Captain Power's own words — SUGGESTED SCHEJEE FOR RATIXG CARRIAGES. Carriages should be rated in proportion to the probable use of the roads. Farmers' waggons and carts, only used on the roads occasionally, should be subjected to a minimum rate. Farmers' waggons and carts, only used on the land, not to be rated. Hauliers', Brewers', Butchers', and other Tradesmens' carts and waggons, &c., are o)ili/ used on the roads, and so constantly, and should be subject to a maxi- mum rate. In the time of Turnpikes the toll was about 5d. or 6d. a- horse ; a Haulier's 4-horse waggon or similar carriage MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. 7 would probably have paid at two gates in the day's work, or about 4s. in tolls ; say it worked 50 days in the year, it would have amounted to £10 for each carriage. A Butcher's or Baker's cart would have paid on an average at least 6d. a-day ; say for 300 days, £7 10s. On large holdings, by deducting the amount of the car- riage rate from the road rate, and on small holdings, deducting the road rate from the carriage rate, I con- ceive you would have something like an equitable arrangement. The larc/e ratepayer, using the roads less frequently, would not pay more than the road rate, in total. The small ratepayer, using the roads constantly, and with heavy traffic, would pay a contribution in addition to this rate. HYPOTHETICAL SCALE OF CAREIAGE EATES. £ s. d. -Farmers' Waggons, each .. 1 Carts „ .. 5 Hauliers' Waggons ,, .. 6 Timber .. 8 Carts .. 3 Brewers' Drays ,, . . 6 Tradesmens' Waggons ,, .. 6 Carts . . 4 Private Carriages — Drawn by 2 Horses .. 6 ,, 1 Horse .. 4 Collecting Eate. Farmer A. B., Eoad Eate on Assess- ment of £500, at 6(/ £ s. (?. 12 10 Eate on 2 Waggons, at £l . , ..200 ,, 2 Carts, at 5s 10 „ 1 Gig „ . . ..200 4 10 Balance . . . , 8 Haulier C. D., Eoad Eate on Assess- ment of £45, aX Qd. . . . . 12 6 8 MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. £ «. d. Eate on 1 Waggon, at £6 . . . . 6 3 Carts, at £3 . . ..900 I Timber Cart, at £8 ..800 23 Deduct Eoad Rate 12 6 Balance .. £21 17 6 There is one other special suggestion which I ought to note, and that is the one proceeding from Mr. Brereton, the County Surveyor of Norfolk ; he proposes a terminal rate on goods discharged from Railways and Canals, for conveyance on urban and rural roads. He says that as 240,000,000 tons of goods are carried per annum, and as there are 240 pence to the pound, a terminal charge of one penny per ton would raise £1,000,000 sterling. Railways, he says, would gain by the arrangement, as they would be saved many of their present liabilities in respect to main- tenance of roads. Here is what Mr. Brereton writes — "The Govornment contributes nothing towards the maintenance of the public roads, although it uses them so largely through the Post Office Department, kc, and collects yearly £1,250,000 sterling from the carriage tax and the railway passenger duty. " "Why should the owners and occupiers be made to keep up the bridges and highways of the Kingdom for the benefit of the general public r" The railway system has enabled enormous quantities of foreign food to be brought within reach of the entire population ; and yet the unfortunate occupiers of the land are compelled to maintain the roads, chiefly at their expense, ichich are beitig worn bij this cotii- petitire food supply. " Whence are funds to come for the future maintenance and the permanent improvement of the public roads "r I can suggest, I think, a reasonable and practicable solution. The public arc now so accus- tomed to the railway and canal system of passenger and goods' rates, that they could easily acquiesce in the substitution of a ' terminal ' tonnage rate on all the goods and minerals issued from each railway station, and from the canals and ports of the Kingdom, in cases where the goods go direct on to the roads. The Board of Trade Returns show that there are more than 240,000,000 tons of goods and minerals carried on the railways and canals throughout the United Kingdom. " I calculate that a ' terminal ' tonnage rate of one penny on the gross tonnage carried by the railways and cinuls will yield £1,000,000. The cost of all the highways in England, including the macadami/cd atruets of the borough towns, is estimated at £-1,000,000 a-ycar. MAINTENANCE OF MAIN ROADS. 9 The railways iconld he henefted — (1.) Because the roads, which are the real feeders of the railways, could be so improved that the cost of transportation would be reduced. (2.) The Kail way Companies con- tribute very heavily to local rates, so that they would, as ratepayers, be greatly relieved. (3.) The roads and over-bridges, which the Rail- way Companies are now obliged, under the Eailway Clauses Consoli- dation Act, to maintain, could be maintained out of the same fund. The annual cost of the maintenance and repairs of such roads and bridges appear as a heavy item in the half-yearly accounts of the principal Railways. The towns would also receive their share of assistance in the maintenance of all urban and macadamized streets ; for the cost, under the plan I suggest, must fall on the consumer. The smallest consumer of coal, for instance, could scarcely grumble at pajdng, say, ^d. a-ton extra, or less than one farthing a-cwt. " Under the present inequitable system of local taxation, a large amount of the funded property of the country is relieved from the highway rate chiefly at the expense of the landowners and occupiers ; and the more these local taxes are increased, the poorer must the land- owner become, since his rents must diminish. In one Union in this county the tillable land valuation lists have recently been reduced 20 per cent. In one parish the rent has been reduced from 20s. to 2s. &d. an acre. In one of the Midland Counties it is reported that there are over 15,000 acres gone out of cultivation; yet the county and other rates must be met by the reduced rateable area." There is little doubt but that traction engines drawing loads, timber waggons, brewers' vans, and such like, are great offenders, at certain seasons, in the way of destroying the roads; and it would be but just that they should be made fairly to contribute to their repair. Licences, varying according to the time of year, for traction engines, licences, according to their carrying powers, for timber waggons and brewers' vans, together with a general graduated wheel tax, might partly meet the difficulty of the maintenance of main roads. Again, if it were determined to appropriate some tax, there are the beer duties, which amounted on beer for sale from October 1, 1880, to September 30, 1881, to £8,498,044 2s. bd. ; there are the licences to dealers in beer, £164,627 ; inhabited house duty on beer shops, £127,959 5s. 0