Hartley Neita THIS PAST week, a toll gate began operating on the new Highway 2000. As usual, there was one man who tried to beat the gate, refusing to pay the fee and holding up traffic for some minutes.
The first record of a toll gate in Jamaica that I have come across is that a man, William Peete, erected one at the Ferry River the border of St. Catherine and St. Andrew and began to operate it on May 25, 1736. At that time there was constant traffic between Kingston and Spanish Town. The river was also deeper and wider than what we now know. It was therefore very profitable.
Two years later, the House of Assembly in Spanish Town, passed a law to improve the road from Spanish Town to Bog Walk, then known as Sixteen-Mile-Walk. Approval was also given for a toll gate on this road.
Over the years, many other toll gates were erected. There was one at Matilda's Corner in Liguanea, St. Andrew, another just below the Blue Mountain Inn across the Hope River on the road between Papine and Gordon Town. A toll gate was also at Osbourne Store in Clarendon, which led to the name of the village of Toll Gate, nearby. There was also one at the mouth of the Martha Brae in Trelawny. There were also several toll gates in Westmoreland. These were erected by the Road Commis-sioners to obtain funds for the maintenance of the roads.
ROAD BLOCKS
Local citizens, however, took umbrage to these gates and at a public meeting in Savanna-la-Mar in July 1856, empowered the Chairman, Mr. Justice J.W. Frazier, to petition the Governor complaining about these road blocks. They did not receive a reply and so proceeded to destroy them in February 1859.
According to the newspapers, "a party of ruffians numbering between 200 and 300 destroyed the toll gate at Truro. They returned the following evening and pulled down the toll keeper's house. On the third night, residents of Savanna-la-Mar joined the miscreants at Manning's toll gate and completely destroyed it.
From there they went to Dunbar's River, "marching to the music of a fife, horn and tambourines, with the leaders disguised in female attire". There they destroyed the bars of the toll gate. The toll keeper's house was saved but he was warned that if he used it again as a toll keeper, "down it shall come". Their next stop was the toll gate leading to Smithfield which they also destroyed, and leaving with a warning that if any attempt was made to prosecute them, "the Court House will be next".
Some of these "miscreants" were arrested, but when they were brought before the Magistrate the following month, a crowd of over 2,000 of their friends and relatives prevented the trial from taking place. The Governor, subsequently led a large force of soldiers to the parish. Those toll gates were never restored.
When the Queen's Highway was constructed between Discovery Bay and Rio Bueno during the 1950s, A.E. Terrier, the Public Works Department engineer who supervised the blasting and bulldozing of the rocks and used the rubble to firm up the swamps, recommended that it should be a Toll Road. The previous road between the two towns was on the hill overlooking the coast and it was tortuous, narrow and loosely paved with marl and stones. Terrier felt that motorists would gladly pay a fee to use the new highway on which they could speed the distance in 15 minutes, instead of the 40 minutes on the old road. His recommendation was ignored.
Toll gates will become a feature of highway development in the future. I believe there will be one across the Wareika Hills from Rockfort to Papine, another on a super highway between Spanish Town and Bog Walk and another between the Gordon Town Road and Buff Bay. In the meanwhile, the speed limit on Highway 2000 could be reduced by 10 kilometres. It is now much too fast.
