A CASE FOR RELIEF

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1943, Page 4

A CASE FOR RELIEF

The request of the South Island Motor Union for the entire removal of the compulsory war damage premium on motor vehicles is justified. Under present .conditions, when the risk of war damage to motor vehicles is negligible, the premium amounts to an extra tax, especially on private motorists, who, in view of the limited use they are able to make of their cars, are already being asked to carry an inequitable burden in licence fees and insurance premiums. Private motorists today receive no more than a token allowance of petrol, and the reductions they have received in fees and premiums are by no means proportionate to the reduced opportunities they have for using their cars. There is already a substantial sum in the War Damage Fund, and in the light of present conditions the premiums of owners of motor vehicles could very well be cancelled. The Government has promised an early investigation of war damage insurance. Such an investigation should be thorough and complete. Moreover, in spite of the provisions of ,the War Damage Act, there should be no transfer or commitment to transfer the accumulated fund to other purposes. The premiums have been collected. through the insurance companies, and there appears to be no very, good reason when the time arrives for disposal of the fund why the same agencies should not be used to return the money to those who have paid it in. After all, those who have paid the premiums are most entitled to say how they shall be applied.