(3) The grant for the new roads should include the purchase, if not of a continuous belt along each side, at least of blocks of land, especially in the neighbourhood of existing communications, near railway stations, near villages or other centres now established, etc. The price to be determined by arbitration upon the old price basis before the scheme of the Road was developed. If this were done the great difficulty for certain purposes (not residential, but other) of using these sites would accrue to the public purse and would gradually relieve the cost of construction.

This project touches, of course, upon one of those political theories which have been debated, as have all political theories in our time, with too much violence and with too much generality. If it be contended that we here introduce the principle of the “single tax” and of the nationalization of land, I can only say that nothing is further either from my thoughts in this essay or from my general politics—as any number of my public pronouncements suffice to prove. But we have here a very special case. These new roads, if we drive them (as we ought to drive them soon) between the main points of the island, will, unless some such scheme is adopted, make a direct and immediate present of millions to the chance owners of land upon their trajectory. It would be a gross case of actual endowment at the expense of the community. Conversely, the reservation of land on either side of the way for the purpose of helping to pay for the new scheme would be of direct advantage to the community and of disadvantage to no one.

At any rate, just as we must soon have a reform of the road system or suffer decline in our communications and therefore in our national life, so we must soon settle a reform in the matter of road maintenance and road taxation. For the new main arteries that should be built we must depend upon the general resources of the community, while for special taxes upon traffic we must establish as soon as possible a simple and universal system.

I need not add, for it is obvious, that such a scheme of new roads would involve a certain amount of individual hardship. It is impossible to avoid that, but it is in the temper of this nation to compromise closely and in detail upon all such things. Nor need it be added that the scheme would have to proceed by trial and error, and could only be, at first, tentative and applied experimentally to one or two chosen trajectories. But I think that it is upon these lines that the problem can be solved.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Our shires were probably originally British, and later Roman, divisions.

[2] The Stane Street. Constable and Co.

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