TRAFFIC AND TAXES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 6

TRAFFIC AND TAXES.

The effect of the important judgment touching the traffic licensing powers of the City Council, delivered yesterday by Mr. Justice Stringer, is that under the existing law local bodies are prevented from taxing vehicles for revenue purposes, no matter how much such vehicles may damage roads or benefit by road improvements. The judge's finding is that a local body is permitted to impose fees for purposes of traffic regulation only, whereas it was admitted that the object of imposing the fees on taxi cars that formed the subject of this case, was to raise revenue. This means that a municipality cannot require any sort of vehicles, though they may be lorries and buses weighing several tons, to contribute to the cost of road-making and maintenance. Yet it [is well known that carriage of heavy loads docs great damage to roads, and 1 that the better the road the more inducement there is for motor vehicles to go into the business of carrying goods and passengers. It may be, as his Honor said, that to single out taxi cars is inequitable, but there can be no question that the general state of the law is unfair to local bodies and to ratepayers. A municipality that goes to the troublo and expense of laying down good roads should be able to tax the traffic that uses and benefits by these improvements. This defect in the law should be remedied without delay, but the amendment will have to be fitted in with the Government's proposals to tax traffic for the benefit of the national highways fund.