Cost Of Motoring

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31384, 1 June 1967, Page 12

Cost Of Motoring

Sir, —I am the owner of a reliable, pre-war motor-car travelling less than 400 miles a year. Disregarding annual fees, it is far cheaper than buses to use around the city. Now that the annual relicensing fee is being increased by £2,1 feel impelled to use my car more and buses less, in order to offset the increase. A consequence of the increase will be to take money from the pockets of transport boards (and ratepayers) and transfer it to the Consolidated Fund (not even the roads maintenance fund) at a time when rationalisation requires Government to subsidise rating revenue, not the reverse. More traffic will accordingly be drawn on to congested roads, aggravating a problem requiring millions of pounds of nonavailable money to correct. Surely a more sensible scheme would be to relate the amount of the annual fees (including compulsory insurance) to distance travelled, or to the age of the vehicle, or both.—Yours, etc, P.M. May 30, 1967.

Sir,—l completely agree with “Unwarranted” on the price of cars in New Zealand. The American dollar is worth 7s to 7s 6d. However, the only alteration to the price tag on an American car in New Zealand is to change the dollar sign to a pound sign, so that the average American car, worth about $3OOO or £lOOO, becomes £3OOO here, or more, with the new higher sales tax. This, together with the ridiculous overseas deposit, is the reason for the 40,000 pre-war cars on New Zealand roads, and the majority of the remainder pre--1960. Instead of placing items on the Australian free-trade list that we can manufacture ourselves, thus putting New Zealanders out of work (e.g, plywood), items that we cannot or will not manufacture, such as .the considerable range of well-built Australian cars, should be substituted, in order to dear some of the dangerous old hulks from our roads.—Yours, etc, D.J.R. May 30, 1967.