MOTOR TAXATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 58, 9 March 1932, Page 8

MOTOR TAXATION.

SUGGESTED IMPOSITION

PROPOSAL FOR £2 A VEHICLE.

REMARKS BY A.A.A. SECRETARY,

Reference to a possible increase in motor taxation by the imposition of a flat rate of £2 on every vehicle on the road, was made at a meeting of the Wellington Automobile Club by the. chairman, Mr. E. A. Batt.

In the course of his remarks Mr. Batt said that during the economic depression there had been raids on the highway finances by the Government and local bodies. The proposal to impose an additional flat rate of £2 for every car on the road had emanated from the Civil Engineers' Conference, not from the Highways Board nor from the Government, although he understood it had been considered by the Government. Why the engineers' conference should do that he did not know-. The accumulative taxation being imposed on the motoring section of the public had compelled botli the North and South Lsland Unions to go into the question of doing more propaganda work, in order to make known to the public generally and motorists in particular what was going on by supplying reports and data of all kind. Steps had already been taken towards doing more propaganda work in the direction indicated.

Mr. G. W. Hutchison, secretary of the A.A.A., said to-day that he had heard nothing of the proposal. The minutes of the engineers' conference had not yet come to hand. It was difficult to understand why such a subject should come under the scope of the engineers, seeing that there were other bodies, such as the Main Highways Board, much more intimately interested, and apparently they had not been consulted. Evidence on the whole question of motor taxation and the utilisation of the Highways Board's funds had been the subject of discussion at a recent conference of the motor unions, and evidence had been prepared aud submitted to the Economy Commission.