PETROL TAX.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19983, 18 July 1930, Page 10

PETROL TAX.

CASE FOR THE MOTORISTS. DEPUTATION TO PRIME MINISTER, {THE PRESS Bpee4»] Service.! WELLINGTON, July J7. Suggested increase? in taxaton were strongly opposed by a deputation from the New Zealand Motorists' Association, which waited upon the Prim© Minister (the Hon. G. W. Forbes) tor day. The deputation, which was intra* duced by Mr A. E. Ansell, Member for Chalmers, claimed that motorists were already bearing a heavy burden of taxation.

The i'nirie Minister said that the Government uacl not .vet reached a ue, tiaion ou aie question of taiauon, ou\ mat iwe repi cremations niaue woum receive attention.

ax.r Vv. u. nahtley xeierred to the, steaay increase in inoior taxation, iia minted out mat in ii»i,9 tne amount! contributed to tu© national revenue b/ mocor vehicle owners was four t ime 4 greater than it was in 19z2|, having increased irom £71*0,782 to £3,094,970. in 1923 the gross mojor taxation amounted to about one-mth pt the total incomo tax. but in tfe gross motor tax, including petrol tax, license fees, registration, Customs, duty, motorrbody duty, tyre tax, lubricating oils duty, heavy traffic fees and primage was £3,094,975, whereas the total income tax yielded £3,319.877,

Ho Longer a Luxury. The amount of the Main Highways revenue was rapidly becoming greater than the county rates. It was u<* longer possible to call the uotor-car a luxury. The man who bought a new, foreign car contributed £134 3s to the. National Revenue, and tfie buyer of an English car £73 £>§ 44, Concern, was being expressed at the increasing expenditure of local bodies, but the motorists contended that were many of these bodies to amalgamate, the re? suiting economy in administration would overcome much of the difficulty A fact that was overlooked by many of those who advocated higher petrol taxation was that ?2 per cent, of the tax was spent on couptry roads, and 8 per cent, on city roads. This was dona in fape, of the fact that a great majprity of those who contributed to the tax never used the country roads. The. motorists were also contributing to. the relief of unemployment. They paid 4 motor-bodv tariff, which made possible an industry giving employment to 3; great number of men, afid they also helped to keep men employed through the expenditure of monev through the road fund. This road wor'is wag cften done bv manual labour, when it could be carried out more economically by machinery.

- The Prime Minister paid that an In* crease in taxation was an nnp*eas"nt thing for anv Government to handle, but adverse conditions h*>d to be. faced. The government had not vet come to any decision unon the onefc tion of taxation.' but he prq«?iset] tVat the nHnts raised by t*»W deputation would be given the fujlest eonsidern* tion.