The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1927. PETROL TAX GOES NORTH.

Evening Star, Issue 19713, 14 November 1927, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1927. PETROL TAX GOES NORTH.

Consistency 1 is a jewel. Adrainistrations often find it difficult to reconcile their actions on different occasions, but are sometimes able to plead that circumstances alter cases. Last week the Government perpetrated a glaring: inconsistency. But it can advance no such plea in this case. The tyro tax and the petrol tax are levied for the same specific purpose, and both taxes are paid by the same people. But the tyre tax proceeds are allocated as between North and South Islands on the basis of the number of motor vehicles registered in each island; whereas the Government flatly refuses to make a similar provision in regard to the proceeds of the petrol tax. But besides being inconsistent, the Government has perpetrated a gross breach of faith with those bodies which, by advocating taxation of themselves and by staunch co-operation with the Highways Board, aro seeking to redeem the Main Highways Act from the stignm of being a “dud,” Tho attitude which tbo Minister of Public Works took up in respect of tho amendment moved by that alert and hard-working member. Mr T. K. Sidey, came as a bombshell to those who have helped the Government with legislation appertaining to road improvement. About two months ago the whole question was thoroughly threshed out at Wellington at a conference of representatives of the North and South Island motor unions and of tho Highways Board. It was agreed there that motorists'must pay more towards the cost of recon struction and maintenance of the highways, and that tho medium of payment should take the form of a petrol tax. It was also unanimously agreed that the proceeds of that tax should be allocated for expenditure in each island in proportion to the number of motor vehicles in each island—i.e., on the same basis as the tyre tax is allocated. Tho Prime Minister, in justifying the imposition of further taxation, stated that motor vehicles were wearing out the roads, and motorists, in taking tho hint that the users should pay, affirmed once more the' principle laid down in tho Main Highways Act in respect oi the tyre tax, because North Island motorists do not wear out South Island roads, nor vice versa.

During the negotiations before tho Main Highways' Act was passed, the Prime Minister agreed to the allocation of proceeds on the basis of tho number of vehicles in each island. Now ho repudiates that principle. This is all the more serious for the South, since the petrol tax will produce possibly three times as much revenue as the tyre tax. Furthermore, the trend of expenditure on roads has hitherto been very much in favor of the North Island, and the fact that the Minister has proposed to lend to the North Island revenue pro vided by South Island motorists shows very clearly whore tho great bulk of tho taxation is likely to be spent. In the past North Island local bodies borrowed freely, even recklessly, to command tho subsidy from tho Highways Board under the Act, whereas South Island local bodies were noticeably more conservative—painfully ‘so, some South Island motorists complained. What is now clearly foreseen by those who have kept au fait with the subject is that the bulk of the revenue from the petrol tax, including that derived from South Island pockets, will be applied to keep the North Island local bodies which have been too enterprising, or too greedy, or too (spendthrift from reaping the, financial

fruits of gross over-borrowing. This is ‘a double penalty which no South Islander should stand. Tho Government which seeks to impose it deserves no support from any South Island voter of aiiy political hue. What must bo done before tho session ends is to amend tho Main Highways Act, so that tho petrol tax proceeds shall be allocated on tho same basis as tho tyre tax proceeds. Possibly when accused of inconsistency as between tho allocation of the tyre tax and tho petrol tax, tho Government may claim consistency in the matter of tho prosecution of public works and the expenditure of public money in the North and tho South Islands. When tho Public Works Statement was being debated in Parliament a week or so ago Air K. S. Williams was called on to explain the disparity of tho vote for railway construction in th. North as compared with that for the South Island. His explanation was the most halting and unconvincing that wo can recollect as coining from a Minister.. About all ho could do was to admit that there was a huge disparity, but to plead that it would he inconvenient to readjust tho balance. Mr Williams said that “the reason was that the groat majority of tho men were employed in the North Island, and ho considered that it was better to keep them there, and to push on with the .work at present in hand rather than to spread them all over the country.” At the end of September there were 2,716 men employed on North Island railway construction, and only 164 on similar work in tho South Island. This disparity is even greater than the programmes of railway construction in the respective islands contemplated. The allocation of money is in tho proportion of nearly ten to one —£930,517 was spent on North Island construction last year and £99,181 in the South Island—and for the current year tho same concentration of ofl'ori in tho North is being continued, the respective votes being £992,000 and £85,000. Our community cannot do more than look on in tho matter of railway construction. The money to pay for it has not been specially earmarked, and comes out of the Consol!-' dated Fund, contributed to by all taxpayers. But is tho same thing going to bo tolerated in rospeot of our roads, for which tho money handled by the Government conics from a special tax on a certain section of tho community levied for a special purpose? If the Government persists in its impossible attitude it may realise next election time that it would have been bettor had it allowed tho petrol tax to have “ gone west ” instead of insisting that it shall go north.