ATTITUDE OF THE FARMER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18799, 28 August 1924, Page 11

ATTITUDE OF THE FARMER.

FLAT RATE OPPOSED. UNSOUND AND INEQUITABLE. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN COB.R£9PONDE>n\] HAMILTON. Wednesday. A conference of representatives of South' Auckland local bodies, presided over by Mr. J. P. Bailey, met in Hamilton yesterday to consider the Motor Vehicles BUI. The advent of the motor hud greatly increased tbe agitation for good roads, said Mr. Wilson, of Waitomo, but the demands of . the motorist were of a kind totally different from those made by the county councils. The county councils based their claim to Government support on their belief that the expense of construction and maintenance should fall, not upon the ratepayers., but upon the users of the roads. The Minister for Public Works in • the original bill introduced by him had advocated making the maintenance and construction of those roads a national obligation. The counties executive was entirely' to blame for the defeat of this sound and comprehensive measure, in fact it had opposed the measure without even giving an opportunity for discussion. After general discussion thfl meeting passed a resolution to the effect that the taxation proposals as set out in the Motor Vehicles Bill were economically unsound, inequitable and unjust inasmuch as the proposed Hat rate tax did not mean that the user should pay: that the. taxation as proposed in the hill he thrown out in toto, that any taxation to provide funds for the construction and maintenance of roads be provided by oiio fix and one tax only and that it be a tax either on tyres j or on petrol, whichever bo considered the , more, sound and economical; that the i conference nrgc the executive of*the CVun- , ties" Association to call together a on- [ farence t<> rrr-njiie evidence in cor.ibat IK- j proposed M to-.- WHY "•"» ■ nrl 'hut I i\;f- i »ti •• ■■<■ t : ;■ V, r < ,>,' \ I.;' 11 <■ I !• •• ■ •••• ■ i ■ ~.: c ,~. :.., !l ..; I i u.c Lid. j