PETROL TAX

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 16, 29 October 1938, Page 5

PETROL TAX

THE FIGHT GOES ON. MOTOR UNION’S REPORT. Prominent in the annual reports of the North and of the South Island (N.Z.) Motor Unions is the admission of frustrated endeavour in the advocacy of reduced motor taxation, and it would seem that the motoring millennium will be reached only when the Government of the day lias a concept of road transport as a vital factor in the lifo of the country, and not as a machine which should, and must, bear the burden of over-weighted taxation. Motor transport should pay on a user basis for the facilities which are necessary for its proper, safe functioning, even though those facilities are at the service of other forms of transport which escape financial responsibility, but there is no valid reason why, having paid for those facilities, motor transport should be singled out for carrying iniquitous taxation to he applied to general purposes unrelated to motoring (says “The N.Z. Motor World,” editorially). That part of the petrol tax, namely t-J-d per gallon, which goes to the Consolidated Fund, is a class imposition which has no justification, and though the motor unions have not yet succeeded in obtaining its abolition the fight for relief will persist until it is obtained. The motorists of the Dominion have shown considerable patience in their approach to consecutive Governments 1 which have been, at almost transparently tolerant, and nothing more, of continued requests for a fair deal. To organised motoring there is no differentiation between Governments in their myopic consideration of transport development. They all have the mossy idea of thirty-eight years ago that because a man owss a motorvehicle he must be wealthy, and that, therefore, he must be able to pay heavy taxation. At the other end of the scale is the disinclination to tax the bicycle because only a poor man rides a bicycle. It is absurd, of course, as wealthy persons ride bicycles and not-so-wealthy persons own motor-cars. If they do not use those cars as' often as they might; if more people who could do so refrain from owning cars, and if petrol taxation is passed on to the non-mof;or-owning public, it is solely the blame of short-sighted Government policy in treating road transport as a luxury to be taxed out of existence. Both motor unions speaking as the voice of over 80,000 A.A. motorists have now decided to make a determined Dominion-wide effort to obtain recognition and redress in their claim for petrol-tax relief.

FAULTY GAUGES. SOURCE OF ANNOYANCE. The vagaries of petrol gauges on some cars at times cause annoyance owing to the driver being stranded on the roadside through running out of petrol. Before the advent of the curved pipo into the petrol tank and the adoption of the electro-actuated petrol gauge (affected by the potential of the battery in some instances), motorists had far less trouble in this connection It seems strange that, with all the great improvements incorporated in the car of to-day, this important feature has not kept step with progress made.

A faulty petrol gauge was tolerated in the days when a dip-stick could easily be inserted through the orifice of the petrol tank, but this practice is now impossible with some of the latest designed cars; hence more dependance has to he placed on the gauge, as to the quantity of petrol in the tank.

The Service Departments of Automobile Clubs and Associations report that calls from “out of petrol” motorists have increased greatly, attributable in most cases to petrol gauges misleading drivers.

Apparently the only precaution available to motorists troubled with an inconsistent petrol gauge is to maintain a well-filled tank by keeping a check on petrol used, based on average consumption and refill tank frequently. It may be reasoned that, if due care is not exercised, at times owners might attempt to put more petrol in the tank than it will hold, but this is just as likely it too much reliance is placed on an electrically actuated gauge which has displayed inconsistencies. There certainly appears to he scope for some inventive genius to evolve a system whereby the motorist can be certain of the volume of the petrol in the tank. LAST TRAM IN PARIS. CITY MOTORISED It is reported that the last tram in Paris completed its final journey about six months ago, and the public transport, arrangements of the city are now completely motorised. The area, which the buses now in use serve is almost as large as that oi Greater London, because it stretches far beyond the limits of the Seine Department. Good progress is also being made in London towards the elimination of the tram. The London Transport Board’s scheme involving £7,500,000 which will transform the old iyram routes into 1 trolly bus services, is now half completed,. Already there are over 800 trolly buses operating in the London area alone.