STATE GRABS FEES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3906, 28 May 1937, Page 5

STATE GRABS FEES

MOTOR DRIVERS’ LICENSES. "We can protest, but it does not seem much use. The Government is going to grab those fees, whether we like it or not,” commented a Borough Councillor when referring to the announcement that it was intended to take the fees now paid to local bodies for motor driving licenses and allocate them on a new basis, by which the smaller local bodies receive nothing. Hitherto the smaller local bodies have received a nice revenue from this source, ac small cost, and it is but natural that resolutions of protest have been made from one end of the Dominion to the other. The latest opinion on the subj’ect was expressed on Monday night at the Te Awamutu Borough Council meeting, when it was decided to support the Feilding Borough Council’s protest, the Mayor adding that Te Awamutu had already expressed its sentiments on the subject—along the same lines as Feild ing.

There seems to be some haziness about the actual intentions of the Transport Department, and it may be well to quote from the circular letter issued by Mr G. N. Laurenson, Commissioner of Transport, as under: It is proposed to revise the system of traffic control so that in future, cities and boroughs with a population exceeding 6000 will be responsible for their own enforcement as at present, while the Government will be responsible for the smaller centres and the rural areas. The present proposal provides that the proceeds from the issue of drivers’ licenses will be distributed to those authorities responsbile for the control of traffic —that is to the cities and larger boroughs and to the Government. The allocation of the funds so collected shall be as follows:

(1) Forty per cent, to the city and borough councils controlling their own areas, i.e., those with a population exceeding 6000. This portion will be divided amongst the various councils in the proportions of their respective populations. (2) Sixty per cent, to the Consolidated fund, towards the expenses by the Government in the smaller centres and rural areas.

These proportions were arrived at on the basis of the total amount of drivers’ license fees collected by the various local bodies during the year ended 31st March. 1936. The total amount thus collected during that year was approximately £66,000 and it is anticipated that the figure for the current financial year will be approximately £70,000. In regard to traffic fines the proposal to deal with them is as follows:

At present the proceeds from the fines resulting from prosecutions by the police and by the Government traffic officers are paid into the Main Highways account. It is proposed as from 31st May. 1938, to pay these into the Consolidated Fund towards the expense of Government traffic control. The proceeds from th e fines resulting from prosecutions conducted by the citv and larger borough traffic officers will continue to be paid into the accounts of the respective local bodies after deduction of 5 per cent, as at present.