N.I. MOTOR UNION

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 August 1933, Page 10

N.I. MOTOR UNION

ANNUAL MEETING. ■ ' . AUCKLAND, August 17. The twentieth annual conference of the- North Island' (N.Z.) Motor Unior is being held to-day. The following are extracts from Mr W. A. O’Callaghan’s (President’s) report:— > From the point of view of.the Automobile : Associations the year ended June 30,’1933', has been a trying one. Conditions throughout the Dominion have been depressed to- such an extent that a great many members have been forced to relinquish their membership Further than this the Government has found it necessary to impose further taxation, and the motorist has not escaped the net of the tax-gatherer. In spite of difficulties, however, it is pleasing to know that all the Automobile Associations in Now Zealand have continued steadfastly to maintain full . service to members, and every year it becomes more worth while to belong to- an Aust-omobile Association. No motorist who cares to acquaint himself with the work done by the Automobile Associations can fail to realise that he canot afford not to be a member. Mcmhti'ship.— As might be expected, the total membership of Automobile Associations in the North Island shows r. drop compared with 1932. At June 30, 1932, there were 29,628 persons members of. Associations affiliated to this Union. At June 30, 1933, this number had dropped to 27,869, a decrease o.! 1,759.. Ridges of Loose Metal Left By Road Gravers.—l. noticed recently that one -.-■ f our magistrates, commenting on the danger arising out of the leaving of a ridge of loose metal by a grader, said •hat one of these days on« of our local j todies would probably be faced with i ?.u action tor manslaughter. There is io doubt that a grave source of danger irises when, as unfortunately quite hcquently happens, a grader leaves a Ugh ridge of metal over a long stretch of road. The danger, of course, is aggravated when the job is incompleted I I by nightfall and the ridge of metal is | left as a menace to traffic. Probably I the danger .would be very largely avoided if shorter stretches- of road 1 . wc-ie graded at a time and' finished before passing on to the next stretch. This matter is not included in the agenda paper, but I mention it as I am sure that the comments of the magistrate will be interesting to all V motorists. Driving Stock at Sight.— It has been suggested in several'quarters that less latitude for the driving of stock at night should be allowed. The provisions of the Stock Act prohibiting the driving of stock between the period of hali-an-hdur after sunsec and lmlf-an-hour before sunrise were designed to prevent cattle-stealing and not to make tile road any safer- for road f users, because at the time that the , Stock Act was originally passed' ti e problem of fast motor transport had net arisen. Nowadays with a.fast and ever-increasing volume of motor transport it is highly desirable in the interest of public safety that stock should not bo on the roads at night. Taxation.— Motor taxation in this country is so punishing in its- nature and extent that I find it difficult to 1 speak with restraint on the subject. 1 Every tim e the gentlemen we send to * Parliament, find the revenues insuffi- ] cienr. to meet commitment's made by themselves or their predecessors they f

make fresh onslaughts, on the motorist. The ad valorem tax on petrol, to give one example of the way in which th e motorist is singled out for taxation, is now nearly 400 per cent., or more than double the ad valorem tax c-n any other commodity, essential or otherwise. Motor taxation has progressively increased' since 1924 to such an extent that to-day we are paying 700 per cent, more tax than in 1924. Nor is the tax-gatherer content with heavy levies upon motorists by way of registration fees, annual license fees, heavy traffic fees, petrol tax, etc., but the Customs Department in the last ten years collected on motor vehicles, tyres, parts and accessories, no less a sum than £9,363,843. There being no equitable reason why the petrol tax should be increased last year it is perfectly obvious even to the most ingenuous motorist that the tax was increased merely because it is easy to collect.

Main Highways.— There is no gainsaying the fact that our main highways are deteriorating, due, of course, to the diversion of funds from the Main Highways Board Account to tho apparently insatiable maw of the Consolidated Fund. This is a matter which no doubt will be fully discussed at Ibis meeting, but it seems to me essential that wo should continue to raminc the Government that, it is the worst form of false economy to allow cur roads to fall into disrepair through lack of provision for maintenance.

Department of Transport.— When this Department was established one section of .motorists regarded it as “just another department” in our Gilbert and Sullivan departmental system; others were inclined to suspect that one of the primary objects of the new department would be to bolster up the Railways at the expense of all icad users, and recent events lead me to the conclusion that this suspicion was not at all unjustified. The fact remains that the Transport Department has placed the commercial road' user to a very heavy expense in protecting what used to be regarded as! a constitutional right to run our busi-J ness in our own way provided that it J by its nature, came within the four, corners of the law. It seems clear,however, that while the operations of! the Transport Department may not!; have been without compensations to’! counsel engaged to protect as far possible the rights of commercial road I 1 users, its principal achievement to, date is to advantage the Railways De-!| partment at the expense of all road' users. fl

Forty Miles Speed Limit.— lt is fitting that I should refer to this question immediately after commenting on tho activities of the Transport Department because the imposition of this speed limit, as far as we are able to ascertain, originated with the Transport Department. We have stated that the local authorities did not ask tor it, the police did not ask for it. and the Main Highways did not ask for it, and we certainly did not ask for it, and our assertions have not been contradicted. Speed limits were abolished in England’ last year, but cur Transport Department is now attempting to “modernise” New Zealand road transport by adopting speed limits regarded in England as being antiquated. Strenuous opposition to this 40 miles an hour speed limit was offered by this Union and the South' Island Motor Union, with the result that it is not applied to surfaced, roads, but it does apply to all metalled roads

excepting those specially exempted. The principal argument advanced by the advocates of the speed limit was that if the average .speeds in the country were reduced the cost of maintenance of roads would automatically be i educed. The advocates of this “Heath Robinson” idea are content to close their eyes to the obvious fact that to bring about a saving of this

kind 100 per cent, enforcement of the

law would ba itecessary. As this is cut of the question our Legislature has been induced to add just one more useless regulation to the agglomeration of ill-considered matter that passes for legislation in this country. Conversion of Cars. — The theft of mete.r cars goes merrily on. Since we last met at an annual meeting many cars have been stolen, many motorists have been put to considerable expense to recover them, frequently only to find on recovery their car badly damaged. We have pointed out to successive Ministers of Justice for many years that the reason that this class cf offence is so common in this country is that the Legislature refuses to regard it as serious; in fact, the theft of a. motor car seems to be regarded in certain quarters as merely an escapade to be deprecated, of course, but net as anything more than ebullition of youth. We have repeatedly asked th e Government to have the penalty increased, but we have been met with hackneyed objections, firstly, that if the penalty were increased the offenders would have to be tried by "a jury and convictions would be more difficult and more expensive to get, and, secondly, that in most cases the offenders are irresponsible youths who are not criminals. Just how the samel youths would be treated if they stole r. few sheep worth 10/- each we can well imagine. That would not be an escapade in the eyes of the law, the maximum penalty for this being many | year;.'.’ imprisonment, but if the same youth converts a motor car to his own use, abandons it badly damaged in some remote place, puts its owner to considerable expense to recover it, then in the eyes of the law this is merely as I have said, an escapade. Is it liany wonder that we motorists are 'i thoroughly dissatisfied with the deI partmental attitude ?

;i Onus of Proof.— An interesting sugpgcstion will come before this meeting land that is that in motor prosecutions {■the onus cl’ pi oof that a defendant is guilty shall be upon the prosecution ■ and not upon the defendant to prove J that he is not guilty of the alleged ofI fence. Under the British conception 'lof justice it is for the prosedution to prove the defendant guilty, and until that is dene the defendant is presumed to be not guilty. Under the Motor Regulations the motorist is deemed to be guilty until he proves himself innocent. 'Phis is rather a striking .example of the way in which the law fails to move with the times. When it was first decided that a motorist must be guilty (because he was a motorist) until he proved his innocence motor cars were regarded as moic or less infernal machines and motorists as some strange beings admittedly of human origin but obvious|ly abnormal. There could' be nd doubt in the eyes of the law at that time that the motorist must b e guilty, and so it remained to this day. Evidence on Commission.— As von know we have again and again urged tiie Government to amend the l\la°isliale's Court procedure so that evidence in motor cases may be taken on commission, and if a motorist from

Palmerston North is charged with an cffence, say, in Napier, his evidence can bo taken in Palmerston North, and ho is thereby saved the expense of going to Napier with his witnesses to defend the action. Every conceivable departmental objection has been raised to our request. We have been told that it would bo more expensive to administer justice in this way; that the magistrate must see the accused, etc. Scant regard is had for the unfortunate motorist who is faced with two alternatives, cither to go to the expense of travelling to the place of hearing, or simply letting the case go by default and being lined out of hand. ?iumbel' I’latcs.— During the year ended March, 1932, tenders were called by the Transport Department for number plates for various periods and the tender submitted' by the Precision Engineering Company, Ltd., Wellington, was accepted for a period of three years and presumably expires some time in 1935. T consider that this system of issuing new number plates every year is a reproach to our national intelligence. Wo would be far better off with the English system, whereby number plales arc issued when a car is registered and they stay on the ear until it is scrapped. Here in Now Zealand we have to buy new number plates,, paying for them a good deal more than they cost, and certainly a good deal more than they are ucitli. and then have all the trouble ci' taking off flic old plates and fitting new ones. The annual cost to the motorists of this country of removing the old plates and procuring and titling new ones canot be less than £25,000 per annum, and I think we. should take some action to see that some more sensible system is put into operation when the present contract runs ’cut.

Petrol Tax.—Early in February of 1933 the Government launched its annual attack, on-the petrol user and increased the petrol tax from S.4Bd to 11.55 d (including primage) per gallon, and thereby elevated New Zealand to the doubtful eminence of levying the highest petrel tax in the world. In association with our friends of the South Island Motor Union, we made strenuous efforts to have this additional tax reduced, and as you know we were successful in persuading the Government to reduce the tax by Id per gallon.