The Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1912. THE TAXATION OF CYCLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10416, 21 March 1912, Page 2

The Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1912. THE TAXATION OF CYCLES.

The proposal to impose a special tax on cycles will have to he very closely watched. There is absolutely no general justification for the taxation of any particular class of the community, and a tax on bicycles would ofiend against one of tho primary principles of government. This question was raised some years ago, when it was suggested that cyclists should be specially rated in order to provide funds for tho formation of cycle tracks on the city streets, and many cyclists, we know, would be disposed to regard a progostion of the kind favourably. But the idea is bad in principle. The suggestion that appeals to some people is that tho registration of cycles would help to check the practice of cycle-stealing, and it is argued that the owners of bicycles should be prepared to pay for the extra protection afforded them. But a very trivial tax would bo sufficient to pay for the cost of registration, and it would bo manifestly unjust to collect more money in this way than would suffice to cover the cost of administration . The idea of imposing a sufficiently heavy rate to provide even a modest contribution to the cost of improving the roads ought not to b© tolerated, and while cyclists may be prepared to tax themselves for tlieir own protection, oven that measure of discrimination would bo bad in principle. The property of cyclists is entitled td the same protection as is afforded to other classes of property, and, as a matter of fact, enjoys that protection. If ejelo thefts are more common than thefts of other portable property the .reason is that cyclists, as a body, are habitually careless of their machines. The improvement of tho roads is a work that interests the whole community, and cyclists only as a section of the community, and tho cost ought to come out of tho general funds. There aro said to be over twenty thousand cyclists in this district. Obviously, so large a class, if t it chose to organise itself and exercise a united influence, could have its wants attended to by the local bodies by tho simple process of agitating through the constitutional channels, and wo are quite sure that if tho cyclists did work together at election time the City Council would have to pay attention to their demands.