PRESS COMMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1927, Page 4

PRESS COMMENTS.

If the petrol tax becomes law it is obvious that many owners of motors in the cities will be called upon, to contribute to the construction of highways which they very seldom if ever use, while at the same time they are called upon to pay rate for their city streets. Such a. position does not seem to be fair. Whether or not the cities will seek more assistance from the highways fund than has been provided in the past we do not know, hut it looks as if the time is at hand when a better allocation of the moneys should he made— Wanganui “Herald.”

The Government have committed themselves to the dead hand. They are not at present working amicably with the banks, and the public, in the absence of precise information, sees little reason to be grateful to either. We have had reason to be thankful for other things—an increased output of butter-fat and a good price, and if we wore wise we should use the opportunity to put finance, public and private, on a sounder footing. Tt is due to financial mistakes that there is a set-back. On broad grounds we should recognise that prices on the whole are likely to fall. Unfortunately we have gone in the other direction, and both Governments and hanks have kept up. prices. No doubt they are most capable people, hut as John Bright said, the worst of great thinkers is that they so often thing wrong.—“Waikato Times.”

It is all very well to say that the country will receive value the petrol tax, hnt this always is said of every

tax. The fact remains that the State proposes to increase by nearly threequarters of a million sterling the levy that it has been making upon the purses of the people, and the truth remains that the less the Government extracts from the public the better. Taxation for necessary public services is, of course, different from taxation for the financing of unproductive or doubtfully productive undertakings. The present, however, is a time in which any avoidable increase in taxation. for any purpose whatever, ought to be avoided. The users of motor vehicles will expect the Government to show clearly that the money which it is now proposed to raise will actually he required for current expenditure.— Christchurch “ l’ross.”

There is a distinct danger of hopeless confusion, ceaseless bickering, and failure to reach 'the essential object, goed roads with economy, and especially with relief to the ratepayers. 'I he need to relieve local authorities, particularly the counties, has been proclaimed; a plan for raising more money has appeared; the greatest necessity, a drastic overhaul of the whole highways system, preferably with a return to the scheme first proposed, of national highways, nationally made and maintained, receives no mention. Those who protest against the petrol tax of fourpence would do well to demand also that the whole system should be reviewed, so that whatever i> levied from them may be used in the most direct, economical, and efficient manner possible. There is no promise of this as the Government sets out to impose its contemplated levy—“ New Zealand Herald.”