HORSE POWER TAX.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 94, 21 March 1931, Page 9

HORSE POWER TAX.

, . CRITICISM OF SUGGESTION. Per Press Association. HAWERA, March 20. Referring to the statement of the Prime Minister, Hon. G. W. Forbes, that the Government had not yet considered the question of imposing a horse-power tax, Mr W. O’Callaghan, president of the North Island Motor Onion, says : “The idea of such a tax. in New Zealand is too fantastic to merit consideration. It has been a colossal failure in England.” Mr O’Callaghan was of the opinion that Mr Forbes realised that motorists generally were already taxed to the limit of their means and patience. BRITISH METHODS CRITICISED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 20. Sir Herbert Austin, the well-known motor manufacturer, delivered an address to-day at a luncheon arranged by the American Chamber of Commerce. Sir Herbert criticised British methods of motor-car taxation based on horsepower, which, he said, was unfair in incidence and amount. Despite the handicaps, however, Britain • held the world’s record for speed on land, water, and in the air. The output of British passenger and commercial motor vehicles had gone up from 73,000 in 1922 to 238,000 in 1929, with a drop of about 2000 in 1930.