THE MOTORIST’S CONTRIBUTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23353, 19 November 1937, Page 8

THE MOTORIST’S CONTRIBUTION

The annual report of the Transport Department, which was presented to Parliament yesterday, provides its own commentary upon the development that has occurred in New Zealand, even within a few years, in motor vehicular forms of transport. The number of vehicles of all types registered in the last financial year, 37,823, is the largest in the history of the Dominion, and it is interesting to observe how closely the annual figures reflect the economic depression of the early nineteenthirties and the emergence therefrom. Compared with 30,847 registrations in 1930, there were fewer than 10,000 in 1933, and there were 10,846 in 1934. The number of vehicles actually on the road at the date up to which the department’s figures were compiled was 227,572. Of these, 152,819 were motor cars, and this is again a record. Unfortunately, this figure has direct relevance to the increase in the cost of motorisation, both in money and in life. The claims paid and outstanding under third-party risk in 1936, the latest figure available, amounted to £320,621, the highest figure since the Act was introduced in 1928, and the number of persons killed as a result of motor accidents has also increased. Deaths for the year which ended on March 31 last numbered 213. This number was exceeded only in 1931. On the other hand, it is in some sense reassuring, as evidence of the effort by the department to persuade the community to curtail this annual roll of tragedy, that on a comparison month by month from September, 1935, to March, 1937, the average number of deaths- per month decreased. A decline in the number of victims of the “hit-and-run” motorist is also noted, but this has to be attributed to the substantial increase in the penalties for this type of offence, rather than to any quickening of the moral sensibilities of a reckless type of motorist. Coincident with the larger number of vehicles on the road, the statistics indicate that greater use is being made of motorised forms of transport. Petrol consumption rose tremendously in 1936, showing an expansion of 9,300,000 gallons from 1935, the previous peak year, and the motorist will not be surprised at the consequent increase in the State’s revenue from the taxation which he pays. In the past financial year £ was derived from the petrol tax, and owners of vehicles may reflect, with what satisfaction they can, upon a contribution of more than eighteen millions to the public funds in petrol taxation since the passing of the Act of 1927. With Customs duties included, the taxation yield for 1937 was just on £5,350.000. nearly £900,000 above 1936, and the grand total of revenues derived from motor vehicle owners in the past twelve years is £35,977,773.