MAIN HIGHWAYS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1925, Page 7

MAIN HIGHWAYS

"PETROL TAX MOST

EQUITABLE"

REPORT OF MR. A. E. JULL.

Mr. A. E. Jull, counties' representative on the Main Highways Board, who lately returned to New Zealand after a tour of America and England, has submitted a report on highway matters abroad. Mr. . Jull's report is of particular interest, as it goes into detail of the financial side of highway construction and maintenance, whereas other reports submitted to the board have dealt with this matter mainly from an engineering point of view.

"Summarising my impressions," states Mr. Jull, "I think the motor users in Graat Britain are taxed at a very high rate, and yet'the local authorities are hard put to it to provide their contribution towards road construction and maintenance. The taxation on the horse-power of cars makes the pleasure car pay disproportionately as compared ■with the commercial vehicle. The present system undoubtedly influences British car manufacturers to keep down.the horse-power of cars, although it certainly has enabled the British maker to successfully compete against the cheap American cars like the Ford, the annual license fee for which- is £21. I saw in the States literally thousands of used Fords, which could be bought for onehalf of the cost of the annual tax on such a car imposed in Great Britain.

"In view of the enormous mileage of roads in Great Britain and the huge 'outlay for straightening and widening important, roads, and in some cases making completely new roads to avoid narrow approaches, to the various cities, I cannot see how motor taxation is to be reduced; it may be varied, but apparently the present annual revenue of some fourteen millions from motor taxation is required. .

"In the United States and Cana-da the most interesting factor in taxation for road construction is the taxation of the cities for county roads and the general recognition of the equity of- taxation of the road user.

"I am decidedly of opinion that the gasoline or petrol tax is the most equitable form of taxation, although a comparatively small tax on each car in addition is the usual practice, and I havo»no fault to find with that practice. SUKFACING. "I am of opinion that where reasonably good gravel is obtainable many o! our New Zealand main highways can still be most economically and efficiently maintained with such surfacing. I must add that efficient maintenance means the keeping oi the road continuously up to the standard adopted, in other words, 'Eternal ■ vigilance is the price of good road maintenance.' May 1 say that the paper written by Mr. A. Tyndall, A.M., last. C.E., of the Main Highways Board, on his experience of road construction and maintenance of England, United States, and other countries is,, in my. opinion, a very excellent description of conditions in those countries, and a frequent perusal of same by county authorities and engineers will be found most profitable. \ "I certainly feel that in many cases •where we in New Zealand are considering'paving certain roads with a most expensive surface, the traffic - tallies ,on some of these roads would not -in the States or Canada be considered sufficient to warrant anything like such expendi- : ture. It is unfortunate, however, that] our road costs for '■'■■ construction and maintenance must for many years be disproportionate to the traffic. "When we see the enormous motor traffic in America and its equally enormous potential taxing power, we can understand how they ca.n continue the road construction programme which would in our sparsely-populated Dominion be- quite beyond our resources, yet there are in the States thousands of miles of main highways without even agravel surface.

'""A-Baal word is, that while in many States in America loans have been raised for road construction, and in some States such a method still obtains, the tendency is to do all such work out of revenue entirely."