REVENUE FROM MOTORS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1924, Page 6

REVENUE FROM MOTORS.

INCOME FOR MAIN ROADS. ESTIMATED AT £ 600,000. LOCAL BODIES’ PROPOSALS; An estimated Dominion revenue of £600,000 a year is involved in the important . proposals put forward by the Auckland conference of local bodies in respect of Ecensing charges for vehicular traffic. The number of vehicles and persons concerned is remarkable. It .s estimated that there are 50,000 motor vehicles in New Zealand, tdiese including private cars, motor lorries and motorcycles, and as far as can be estimated, there are >OOO horse-drawn vehicles. To provide modern transit facilities for that gigantic fleet different authorities are spending large stuns on the improvement of roads. This has raised the question of how much and in what manner owners of vehicles should contribute towards the construction and maintenance of main highways and town and country thoroughfares. The new Motor Vehicles Bill suggests certain me'.hods which the local bodies, as represented at the Auckland conference, consider inadequate to such an extent that they have postulated different provisions. These include, first of all, the registration of all vehicles, and th-j issue of annual licenses, based on difftu> ent methods of assessment as to engine power, weight of vehicles and passen-ger-carrying capacity. A feature of these proposals is that the license fees, instead of going to the Main Highways Board for main highways only, should go to t'he local bodies for expenditure on roads, the eol'lection of Sees and supervision of expenditure to be undertaken by a National Highways Board. On that basis of computation the registration fees would amount approxi mately io £50,000, distributed in this manner:—4s,ooo motor cars and lorries at £1 ea?h, 5000 motor-cycles at 10s each, and 5000 horse vehicles at 10s each. It should be noted that jhe total of £50,000 would 'be for the first year of the new system only, but as against the non-rertirring revenue from th it estimated total something like 10.000 cars and lorries would De added each year, these contributing a new income to the roads fund. In the matter of annual licenses has ed on engine power it may be gathered that 36,000 lice mses at an average of £5 l'ss for each private car would yield a revenue of £'207,000.

Then there will be approximately 100,000 drivers, who, if li.-ensed at th-? annual rate of 5s each, would cont’ibute £25,000. An estimated total of 9000 commercial vehicles if licensed at an average evt £4O each, would produce an additional £350.000, while 5000 mo»tor-cycles, at an average of £2 lO.i, would add £12,500. In addition to these there are, say, 5000 horse-drawn vehicQes, averaging £6 each, to contribute £30,000, 800 motor-buses paying £75 each on an average, yielding £15,000, and 600 tramcars at a fl.it rate of 15s each, producing £450. These give a total of £649,950.

From the aggregate revenue annually as stated, however, certain deductions must he allowed, since the private cars, horse-drawn vehicles and motor-cycles in rural areas to be defined have on.r to be charged at half the proposed rates for annual licenses. This may be sec down as £50,000, leaving a total prospective yearly revenue of nearly £600,000?