LEVY PAYERS IN QUEUES

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1934, Page 6

LEVY PAYERS IN QUEUES

718 PAY ON THE FINAL DAY POSTAL DEPARTMENT’S BIG WEEK MOTOR VEHICLES REGISTRATIONS. To-day closes the week of the year when officials in every post office from the hamlet to the biggest city have been working at a pressure not exceeded m any other weekly period. The reasons are the annual rush of re-registration of cars for 1933-34, the payment of levies for the quarter due May 1 and overdue May 31 and the annual declaration of income other than salary for unemployment levy purposes. New Plymouth has taken its share of this Dominion-wide postal departmental activity. It is a human failing to retain payment of taxes until the latest possible time, and 718 persons who had been dilatory in payment previously in the month tendered payment on Thursday, May 31, the last day on which levies could be paid for the quarter without an additional fine of 6d for each month overdue. These 718 payments were put through in the seven hours public official day, an average of over 100 hourly. Each transaction was a double one, as the income declaration had also to be furnished with the levy payment. The emergency payment counters in the Silver Street portion of the post office premises, which are used when the volume of business is too large for the main counters, have been open all the week. Thursday saw a continuous queue extending well into the street during the whole period the office was open. A stranger could have been excused for imagining that there was a popular musical show in the town besieged by eager first-nighters. Yesterday 280 levies were paid, an average of 40 an hour, compared with 300 on June 1, 1933. There may be indications of prosperity in the fact that 1989 motor vehicles had been registered up to May 31, compared with a corresponding total of 1818 at the same period last year. The reduction of 3s in the insurance charge—from 20s to 17s—has been well received.