HUTT ROAD TAXATION

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 86, 6 January 1926, Page 8

HUTT ROAD TAXATION

£10,600 FOR NINE MONTHS HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES YIELD £12,179 Owners of motor vehicles of all descriptions expect fjood roads throughout the metropolitan area, and at the present rate of income from the taxation that has been imposed they should get tiie best roads of any part of New Zealand in the course of the next few years. It may be remembered that when less than two years ago Mr. W. T. Strand (the Mayor of Lower Hutt) suggested that they were likely to get a return of £BOOO a year out of the Hutt Road tax (the special tax levied for the laying down of the bitumen road between Thorndon Quav and Petone), several of the members of the tilth Hutt Road Control Board regarded that figure as too optimistic altogether, and were inclined to place it at least £lOOO below the estimate made bv Dlr. Strand. From figures secured yesterday it would seem that the Navor of Lower Hutt was almost a pessimist in his estimate, for the Hutt Road fees for the nine months of the financial year ended December 31 amounted to no less a sum than £10,600 12s. Bd.. and it is conficientlv estimated that this may reach £ll,OOO before the close of the financial year at the end of March. The totals arc made up as follow: —

In regard to the heavy traffic license fees for the Citv of Wellington, the matter of schedule has been a cause of a rood deal of discussion, but as the fees for the current financial year were duly gazetted earlv in the year it was not legally possible to make any alteration in the schedule for that period, pud the citv solicitor ruled that such fees were due and pai’able, whatever alteration may be made at a later date. These discussions have, in some instances, delayed payment, and the return from heavy traffic license fees is not so great at this time of the year—with nine months of the financial year expired—as was expected. Still the amount collected between June 30 and the end of the year amounted to £12,179, a sum that should be augmented during the next three months. As the whole of these moneys are earmarked for the improvement of the roads it will be seen that within a measurable distance of time the roads of this city should compare favourably with those of any other city in Australasia.

£ s. d. 7031 7 6 Motor-vans 1860 3 4 Mntnr-wao'ons ..... 876 10 0 814 11 0 Arrears etc 18 0 10 Total £10,600 12 8