CHEATING THE CUSTOMS.

Motor Car Importation.

: This paper's.; attention has been directed to an unsatisfactory state of affairs -m connection with the importation of motor cars. * Apparently for the purpose of helping to kill, the New Zealand iron industry, the chasis (including the undercarriage and engine) is admitted free of duty, whilst a duty is T placed upon car bodies, under the mistaken impression that it will help the New Zealand coach builder. It ,is true' that m 1910 726 bodies were :m---ported at a cost of £41,250, as against 772 chases costing £180,065, or fortysix fewer bodies than chases, but this paper is afraid that local manufacturers do not get the Job of making the forty- six bodies. The information is given for what it is worth, but it is alleged that some importers dodge the duty on bodies by importing them m pieces.. as motor car accessories, which are numbered and slung together m localshops when landed. In 1910 materials for motor vehicles valued at £57,97? were imported, and as only. £273 13s 3d was - paid m duty, most' of the accessories were on the free list. If the above is correct the dutyonr motor car bodies is a farce, and what is required is a good,, stiff duty on thp car as a whole, and for every part thereof, excepting tyres. It is used by . the people best able- to pay the duty, which will not be a tax when" New Zealand manufactories are started, because it will be cheaper to buy the local article. We recently published some figures m connection with the registration of motors m Canterbury, which is the home of that form cf travelling. , In Christchurch. City fc-omething over 1900 motor vehicles have been registered, and of these (approximately), 1100 are motor cycles and SOO motor cars. .The passing of the prad or moke or gee-gee or neddy or steed or nag or carbine is evidenced by the fact that there are no fewer than eighty- five . taxi-cabs m. the Municipal Council's books. If these foreign vehicles were manufactured m Christchurch it would greatly en-, "nance the prosperity of the city.