RECORD FIGURES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19694, 28 July 1938, Page 7

RECORD FIGURES

REGISTER OF MOTORS

PETROL CONSUMPTION UP

£500,000 MORE IN TAXES

TRANSPORT REPORT

(Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Record figures abound in the annual report of the Transport Department presented in the House of Representatives to-day. New motor vehicles, total registrations, consumption of petrol, collections of special motor taxation, and expenditure on roads, streets and bridges all established new figures for the year. The most satisfactory feature is that road accidents have substantially diminished.

The number of all classes of motor vehicles licensed on March 31, 1938, was 280,327, a figure never approached in any previous year. New registrations comprised 29,837 cars, compared with 25,790 for 1936-37, the previous record year, while commercial vehicles newlv-rcgistered numbered 10,413, as against 8999 for the year 1936-37.

Motor Taxation

The estimated consumption of petrol by motor vehicles during the year reached 82,000,000 gallons, which was 10,000,000 gallons ahead of the previous highest figure. Receipts lrom all forms of motor taxation amounted to £5,887,200, compared with £5,350,420 for 1936-37. From the special taxation levied on non-petrol-usmg vehicles, the department collected £10,591, compared with £4159 for the previous year.

Expenditure on roads, streets, and bridges in the Dominion for the year under review reached the high figure of £9,008,700 in the last year for which statistics on the point are available, this being 1930-37. The trend of expenditure is indicated by the fact that in the previous year, the outlay for the Dominion on these forms of public works was £8,077,975. Side by side with the expansion in outlay'upon motor vehicles and on facilities for their more economical operation, the department has carried on a multitude of activities relating to the control of transport, the reduction of the ratio of accidents to the volume of traffic, the enforcement of traffic laws, the supervision of insurance claims in respect of accidents, the improvement in efficiency and in labour conditions within the motor industry, and the expansion of air services throughout the Dominion.

New Registrations and Origin

In the report, a number of interesting tables are introduced, showing the various forms of development which have been reflected in official records. For instance, a tabulation of registrations for the individual years since 1920 shows that cars reflected the depression much more quickly, in the matter of new registrations, than did commercial vehicles, and _ were also slower to respond in sales figures to the stimulus of better times. Commercial vehicles were not influenced to the same degree by the depression, and the rate of their entry into the. traffic system seems now to be accelerating.

Of considerable interest are the figures showing the countries of origin of the motor vehicles registered between 1927 and 1938. Throughout the whole period, British cars have gainpd on those from other overseas countries, the position having improved immensely as a result of tariff manges and an improvement in the road conditions.

Whereas in 1927, English manufacturers furnished 2185 cars to New Zealand buyers, as against 13,023 from the United States and Canada, last year the proportion was 10,610 British and 12,919 United States and Canada.

With commercial vehicles the imimprovement n British trade figures also has been remarkable, though commercial vehicles manufactured in Great Britain have still a good deal of ground to make up.

In the motor-cycle group, Britain has always had a big lead, and last year supplied 2714 to New Zealand, as against 304 drawn from other countries.

The increase in the number of motor vehicles on the roads has been reflected, of course, in an increased use of petrol, and in 19:10-37 the total consumption was 89,449,905 gallons, included in which was 7,339,000 gallons on which refunds ot duly were made by the. department. This consumption was more than twice that of 1927-28. Traffic census figures, on a comparison between 1934-35 and 193738, show an expansion of about 40 per cent in the use of the roads by motor vehicles. Rise in Expenditure In sympathy with the increased use of the' roads and yield from motor taxation, the expenditure on main highways, urban roads, and minor country roads has risen steeply, the figures for the four years up to 1930H 7 having been analysed as under:— 1933-34, £7,057,402; 19:14-35, £7,097,445; 1935-30, £8,077,975; 1930-37, £9,008,700. The main highways expenditure has contributed most to the increase in general outlav, having risen from £1,874,211 for 1933-34 to £3,543,601 in 19:5(1-37. Urban roads and streets cost less in 1930-37 than in 1933-34, by about. £150,000, while under the heading of "other roads," the expenditure rose from £3,095,933 to £3,528,783.

Loan moneys, local rating, general taxation, and motor taxation all showed increases over the period named, a feature of the past three years being the decrease in expenditure from the unemployment funds on road construction and maintenance. Advances from the unemployment funds represented onlv 7.7 per cent of the total outlav during 1930-37.

The development of aircraft consumption of petrol in late years is reflected in the refunds of petrol taxation, which were made on 50,905 applications in 19:17, the amount involved being £188,440. Although the number of applications was the smallest for four years, the amount of refunded taxation was the highest on record, this being accounted for by the growing consumption by aircraft.