LIGHTING -UP TIMES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 111, 13 May 1939, Page 28

LIGHTING -UP TIMES

Sunday 5.15 p.m. Monday 5.14 p.m. Tuesday ; • • 5.13 p.m. Wednesday 512 p.m. Thursday 5.11 p.m. Friday 5.10 p.m. Saturday 5.9 p.m.

CRASH OF HOPES

THE HORSEPOWER

TAX

BRITAIN'S IMPOST SOARS

The owners of the 1,916.226 private cars registered in Great Britain will, for some time to come, regard April 25 as "Black Tuesday," on account of the announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the annual registration fee of 15s per horse-power on private cars in the United Kingdom is

to be raised to 25s per horse-power as from January next. • .

This is a terriffic impost, and it will come as a shock to motoring interests in Great Britain, where 1,340,000 men are employed in the construction, servicing, and driving of automobiles. The wages of motor drivers and employees at garages, etc., is alone computed at £200,000,000 per annum. Since January, 1935, when the registration tax was reduced from 20s per h.p. to 15s per h.p., motoring organisations in Britain have been hopeful of obtaining a drastic revision of the tax on private cars, which was considered excessive and detrimental to Britain's export motor trade. Even on the current basis of automobile taxation, viz., 15s per h.p. on private cars, a sliding scale tax on commercial motor vehicles based on weight of unit, and a petrol tax of 9d per gallon, the owners of automobiles in Great Britain will, it is estimated, contribute no,less than £93,550,000 (£52,000,000 in petrol dues) in the current financial year. , The 25s per h.p., which.is to be imposed from the beginning of next year, will give a setback to the manufacture and sale in the United Kingdom of cars in the 20-30 h.p. category. A 20 h.p. car which now costs £15 per year to register will be taxed £25 in 1940, while a 28 h.p. car will be taxed £35 a year. The repercussions in motoring circles in Britain will be tremendous, one of which will be a further swing towards the smaller powered car, which already dominates the industry in Great Britain. Evidence of this is the fact that the average h.p. of Britain's private cars is under 12£ and that more than 1,350,000 of the cars in the United Kingdom are under 13 h.p. The highpowered British- and foreign-made cars will be severely hit. but the probabilities are that their owners are better able to pay the increased tax than the hundreds of thousands of people in Great Britain who run 8 to 10 h.p. small family cars. The increase on a 10 h.p. car will be from £7 10s per year to £12 10s (66 per cent.). In addition, there is compulsory third party insurance, plus petrol tax. The effect of the new tax on the British motor industry, which is already devoting much of its energies to the production of aircraft, mechanised units, etc.. cannot be anything but serious. Sales of new units have fallen steadily during recent months in the United Kingdom, owing to tls£ European situation, and. needless to say, the heavier tax will not improve matters.

The grouping of the sales of 275,315 new cars in Britain last year is of interest: Cars up to and including 8 h.p. totalled 76,260 units, 9 and 10 h.p. 95.107 units, 11 and 12 h.p. 46,144 units, 13 to 19 h.p. 39,490 units, 20 to 25 h.p. 9961 units, and 26 h.p. upwards 8353.

It is remarked that if split-pins cost shillings instead of pence their importtance in the safety make-up of motor vehicles would be kept more in mind. They may only be split-pins, but that "only" is also the "only" that stands between the driver and serious accident. Split-pins do not directly hold things together; they are too weak for that. What they do is to prevent movement of the things that do hold everything together, and so, fundamentally, they are an essential of safety.