MOTORS and MOTORING.

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 181, 26 April 1924, Page 18

MOTORS and MOTORING.

BETTER ROADS OR RELIEF TO RATES ?. THE REAL MOTOR TAX ISSUE. MOTORISTS’ INTERESTS IN JEOPARDY. Wellington City has a considerably smaller mileage .of surfaced roads in and about it than is possessed by Auckland, and is distinctly backward in this respect as compared with most other centres elsewhere of the same size. In consequence of the imposition of the Hutt Road motor tax the city and suburban local bodies are being relieved of an expenditure of £4OOO per annum on the maintenance of that thoroughfare. The local bodies are free to do as they please with the sum thus saved, and most of them would reject the suggestion that there was any moral obligation to use it in improving other roads. Unless Wellington motorists are vigilant they will find that they are paying a special tax without receiving any greater benefit in consequence than is falling to the lot of motorists in other centres where no such tax is paid. The only way to secure real benefit' is by rigidly insisting on the highly important point that the revenue from the tax must be used to supplement present road expenditure in the district, and must not go in relief of the rates.

Mr. Strand’s proposal as drafted by him provided for the use of the Hutt tax surplus to pave certain roads in the neighbourhood o fthe city at the sole cost of the motorists. If the present annual cost of maintaining the 30 miles of road under Mr. Strand’s scheme is put at £l5O per mile—dhe average is probably considerably higher—it means that a saving in maintenance will accrue of at least £4500 per annum. If the £4OOO saved by the local bodies in maintaining the Hutt Road itself is added to this we get a total saving of the local bodies in the district of £B5OO per annum. The Hutt Road motor tax is expected to produce from £7OOO to £lO,OOO per annum, and if Mr. Strand’s scheme were adopted in such a form as to provide that the local bodies added their savings in road maintenanw to the amount contributed by the motor tax, the district would have a total fund of from £16,000 to £19,000 per annum avail- ’ able for financing road improvements over and above those now being undertaken, enough to do about double ths work proposed by Mr. Strand. Hostility to Motorists, Apparently Mr. Strand is agreeable to modification of his scheme in detail, providing the basic principle of using the surplus from the Hutt Road tax for the improvement of other roads in the district is accepted. Unfortunately not all the members of local bodies in the district seem to be able to view the scheme with an open miiid. We have already been treated to the Mayor of Petone's interesting proposal that the motor tax should be used to pay off the local bodies’ share of the original cost of constructing the present Hutt Road. This work was mooted before motor traffic was heard of, and a far more expensive road than was ultimately laid down was clamoured for at a date when the city and district possessed no more than a few score of motor vehicles. Just as the Mayor of Petone seems bent to-day on extracting money from the motorists and giving nothing in return for it, so the Mayor

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of Petone twenty yeans back was apparently similarly bent on securing a luxury highway mainly at Government expense. Motorists are also held in small regard by the Hutt County Council, and although Mr. Strand may be willing to modify his original pioject it is possible that the local bodies in the district will evince a desire to use the Hutt Road tax surplus merely as a means of relieving their ratepayers of current expenditure, and not with any particular regard for the motor taxpayers. The Cards on the Table.

Mr. Strand has proposed to use his anticipated revenue of £7OOO from the tax to finance a bituminous concrete road from Seatoun to Trentham, plus an arm running a mile up the Ngahauranga gorge and another from Petone to Eastbourne, a total of 33 miles including the present Hutt Road surface. Prom the figures given above it seems that if the local bodies have been spending £BfitMl per annum in maintaining these roads in their unsatisfactory condition, it would be profitable to them, apart from any tax, to do the work themselves and have permanent surfaces on their roads for £7OOO a year in interest and sinking fund in lieu of the £B5OO a year spent on bad roads. The figures given for the maintenance of the roads in Mr. Strand’s scheme, are purely hypothetical, apart from the £4OOO for the Hutt Road. The cost has been averaged at £l5O per mile per annum, but even the main roads in Hutt County are stated to be costing £2OO per mile per annum. The average expenditure per mile for the whole of the city streets seems to work out at something approaching £4OO, and Mr. Strand has 7i miles of citv streets in his scheme. It is exceedingly desirable that all the cards should be laid on the table, and the public told exactly what is the present actual cost of maintenance of the roads in the scheme. When we get these figures we ehall know what load the local bodies are going to shift off their ratepayers’ backs at the expense of the motorists. .The £B5OO saving arrived at above will possibly be found to be very much under the mark indeed. ’ Another Solution. In an article last week “Spotlight 1 ' contended that the surplus, from the Hutt Road tax—if that tax is retained at all—should only be used to finance the surfacing of additional roads on a fifty-fifty basis —half the cost of construction coming from the motor tax and half being found by the local body Tills would be an excellent windfall for the local bodies, and should also safeguard the interests of motorists and lead to Wellington having the best roads in the Dominion. Another solution of the Hutt Road tax would be to bring the undertaking at once into line with the national highways scheme. Under the Act the Highways Fund bears half the cost of paving arterial highways and the local bodies bear the other half. In view of the hostile attitude of local bodies in the Hutt Road tax district towards motor traffic, motorists can expect little advantage from such bodies having a large sum of special motor taxation to play with, for the views expressed by the Mayor of Petone last week, for example, indicate little desire to give the motor tax payer a fair deal, and the attitude of the Hutt County

SPOTLIGHT.”

, Council so far has been most unpromising. Unless there is evidence of a genuine desire to treat motorists fairly it would not be a wise step to make a bargain at once for the Highways Board to take over part of .tlie cost of the Hutt Road as a main highway and cancel the tax forthwith. This would be quite a fair deal to the local bodies, who in 1917 never anticipated that the motor tax would defray the whole cost of the pavement they proposed to lay. The Highways Board is out to do its utmost to further the good roads movement ; whereas the Hutt Road Board appears to be representative of too many interests which merely want to grab motorists’s money, and if mere interests predominate motorists will be foolish not to protect themselves.

JOTTINGS Up to 4 o’clock last Monday afternoon, 129 motor-cars had passed over the Rimutaka Hill during the day en route to the Wairarapa, and 73 in the opposte direction. The total tally for the day must have been well over 300. as practically none of the cars going to the Tauherenikau races had returned by 4 p.m. Thia tally was exclusive of motor-cycles and other vehicles.

“Spotlight’s” note last week on the Western Lake Road from Featherston to Palliser Bay should have stated that the last mile or so of this road is a rough grass track, turning off to the left just inside the second gate, where the notice “No thoroughfare” is posted on the road leading into Wbarepapa station. There is no good drinking water where the road comes out on the beach, and the most attractive picnicking spots are about halfway down from Featherston.

The roads from Christchurch to Kaikoura are reported to be very good at present, but the Conway ford is soft and great care should be exercised in going through it. As a matter of fact motorists should inquire at the ford to see whether a better bottom is available lower down the stream.

The State Engineer for Wisconsin, in a recent address, declared that the total cost of owning and operating the 14,000,000 motor vehicles in the United States was, approximately, £5,000,000,000 dollars. The investment in these vehicles, he thought, probably represented about 10,000,000,000 dollars. The benefits gained could not be estimated, but there is no doubt that a distinct balance on the credit side existed.

Trial stretches of a new rubber road surface are being laid by a London firm. The system of construction differs from the usual when rubber is utilised, for, instead of simulating in dimensions the blocks used for wood, paving, the rubber surface on a concrete foundation is but |in. thick; although the cost is appreciably greater than wood blocks, it is claimed that the life of the rubber is three time* as long.

An almost immediate effect of increasing the price of petrol in Britain has been the return to horsed transport on the part of numerous large contractors. As a result, there has L;on a slight increase in the average price paid for horses, but it is contended that the price of petrol makes motor transport more costly than the horsed type, particularly as fodder, etc., is very much cheaper than it was a year ago.' Mr R P- Furness has been re-elect-ed president of the Marlborough Auto mobile Association for the third term.

TAXATION CONTRASTS TAX £2 10s. IN AMERICA AND £l2 10s. IN BRITAIN

In view off the impending motor taxation in New Zealand, interest attaches to the following from the London “Motor”:— The motor industry of this country is labouring under a heavy burden of taxation. The individual motorist is overtaxed and it is inevitable that industry must suffer as a consequence. We have made an analysis of the latest American statistics, particularly in reference to taxation. From the 14,500,000 motor vehicles registered in the US.A. a revenue of, approximately. £35,000,000 is paid to the American Government. From the approximate total of 1,079,000 vehicles licensed in this country at the end of 1923, a revenue of £13,313,334 was paid into the British 'Treasury These are the interesting facts which our analysis reveals: — The tax in America is about £2 10s. per vehicle per annum. . The tax in Great Britain is about £l2 10s. per vehicle per annum. Compared with America, motoring development in this country must always be relatively insignificant, because of our geographical circumscription and our population limitations; but with a much more equitable method of taxation the development oi motoring here could be hastened and extended very considerably. While motorists are inflicted with such a crushing burden of taxation, however, there will always be a restriction upon industry. THE DANGER OF DIMMING HEAD-LIGHTS In a very interesting article, “The Menace of the Dimmed Headlights,” which appears in the January issue of our American, contemporary “Motor Life,” it is stated that data gathered by the U.S. Bureau of Standards established the fact that 73.2 per cent, of headlights on privately owned cars were out of focus. The matter is receiving considerable attention by the various States. For example, the California motor vehicle law requires sufficient light to render clearly discernible a person or vehicle 200 ft. ahead ; it provides for arrest for improperly focused lights, and also makes it unlawful for any dealer to sell an antidazzle device unless approved and aocompanied by a complete description and instructions for use, including photographs of the device and a. beam chart pattern. The article points out that lights which are excessively dimmed are the cause of more accidents than glaring headlights, and concludes with the following advice: “Dimming is a mistaken idea of courtesy. Don t dim; adjust your headlights.

JOTTINGS New York State Legislature is making war on the villages which mulct motorists with speed limit fines. t - ,lle village of 400 people has collected as much money in this way as has Albany, the State capital. It is now proposed to let the villages retain only a dollar a head out of every fane imposed, the balance to go into the State Treasury. Money making out of speed limit fines seems to be a lucrative local body pastime the world over.

Hawke’s Bay County Council is erecting twenty-four danger signals on tho Nupier-Wairoa Road. The additional sign-posts to be erected are a's follow:—Two bad bend signs for the Rimutaka Hill Road; one bad tend sign for the bad bend near Wilkinson's gate on tho Rimutaka Hi 1 Road; road direction post at the corner of the South Featherston Road and the Greytown-Featherston Road; water race signs) at each of the following water races —Camp and Kaiwaiwai; one bad bend sign for the Longbush-Hinakura Road at the bad bend near Simon DAlgleish s house goinr’. to Hinakura; two school signs for tne Opaki School.

Motorists travelling from Featherston to Lake Ferry during the holidays should note that the Kahutara bridge over the Runahanga River is now open for traffic. This route is some miles shorter than that by Martinborough, and it makes a good round to go one way and come back the other.

Pa tea Countv has plans to spend £BOOO this year in the improvement of the main road through the county. Five miles of roadway is to be surfaced at £2O per chain all through for a 12ft. bitumen grouted and sealed road, laid in such, a manner that three feet can be later added to each side, making an 18ft. wide surfaced roadway. All formation will be not loss than 26ft. wide, and will be done previous to laying the above 12ft surface. A fifty per cent, subsidy on this work is being sought from the Highways Board.

Kaikoura County ia sore at the alow progress of the Public Works Department in makino- good the damage done in the district by the floods a year back. It was declared at the last County Council meeting that the work is only being tinkered with, and after every fresh shower of rain things aro worse than they were before.

The closing of roads in Wanganui County to heavy traffic from May to September is urged by tho county engineer on the ground that the damage done to lightly surfaced roads in many parts of the county by the passage of one or more heavily loaded vehicles when the roads are in partially saturated condition is excessive.

Any hardy travellers thinking of making the passage from Waimarino to Tokaanu will be interested in the following from the Auckland “Herald” : Some of the wash-outs on the Waimarino-Tokaanu Road, caused by recent abnormal rain, wore nearly Bft. deep. It is to be regretted that the culverts are not of larger dimensions. This would certainly prevent some of the trouble, which, in a few instances, arose through blocking of the culverts by debris that a larger culvert would have carried off. Apart from this the road is reasonably passable. but the one section which really requires forming is that beyond Tongariro Post Office, where the gravel bed comes down from Mt. Tongariro. The eastern end beyond the flax swamp is impassable in really wet weather.