THE H.B. TRIBUNE SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1934. MOTOR TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 210, 18 August 1934, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1934. MOTOR TAXATION.

The annual meeting of the North Island Motor Union held in Napier this week Jias had the effect of bringing more closely before us here aspects of motor transport and its development

that might otherwise have escaped local notice. The outstanding feature of the discussions, the heavy taxation imposed upon the users of motor vehicles as a body, is one, however, with whicli we were already more or Jess familiar. The figures for last financial year adduced by the president of the Union are, for all that, none the less’ impressive. They show that, taking all impositions into consideration, motor vehicles and their use make direct contributions to State and local body revenue aggregating well over £2l million, and this docs not take into account the ordinary Customs duties levied upon the vehicles themselves.

When this special taxation was initiated it was mainly with a view to applying it to the making and maintaining of roads suitable to this particular class of transport. For a time this principle was fairly well observed, with the result of an immense improvement in the general character of our highways being effected. Of more recent years, however, there have been rapidly increasing departures from this principle until we find that for the year just now under review only about one-third of the total taxation levied is reserved for the purposes originally in view. The consequence is not only that there arc but scant funds available for the further reconstruction of highways, but also that there are not sufficient for the proper maintenance of those already formed. Tn the inevitable deterioration in good work already done lies the main conedmnation of the starvation policy the Government has latterly pursued. It is manifest that, unless that policy is speedily reversed, or at least very, considerably modified, the benefit to the public of the many millions already spent on highway formation will in great measure be lost, if not eventually disappear altogether. Though what are generally, but in many cases quite wrongly, regarded as the luxury class of vehicles make a very full, perhaps the greater, contribution to the revenue required for the making and upkeep of suitable roads, it is with those that render public service in the transport ol’ both passengers and freight that the public is mainly concerned. Here, of course, the question of com petition with the railways, virtually owned by the people themselves, necessarily enters into consideration. That it is to the advantage of the public as taxpay- . ers to afford all possible support to the State-owned railways goes without saying, for by doing so • they relieve themselves of a corresponding amount of the taxation required to make good the annual deficit on the operation ol

the railways that has now become chronic. But, even giving this all in, it has to be recognised that motor traffic as a public utility has come to stay and provides an element of both economy and convenience which the railways cannot supply. It is therefore essential that competition as between the two means of transport, if it cannot be eliminated altogether, should be placed on as fair a footing as possible. As things stand at present, funds originally intended for the construction and maintenance of good roads for the motor vehicles arc being robbed virtually to help in offsetting the losses incurred in running the competing railways.