The Petrol Tax.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19155, 11 November 1927, Page 8

The Petrol Tax.

Wednesday's debate on the Motor Spirit Taxation Bill resolved itself into a protest by the House of Representatives against the amount of the tax, and an earnest defence of its proposals by the Government. Up to a point it is a good defence of the tax that better roads have not merely been asked for by motorists, but very often indeed violently demanded, and that the provision of such roads would put the tax back again in motorists' pockets. It is also a very strong argument for the Government's proposals that they are especially designed to help the primary producer. If we must go as far and as fast in road improvement as certain sections of the public keep on saving, and as the Government now also seems to say, it is no doubt better to take from five to seven pounds directly out of the pockets of car-users than to raise the wind in any other way. But it is very uncertain indeed that we have to do that —very uncertain that we can do it, or should try. Taxation is so heavy already in general that to answer the national outcry for relief by the imposition of another three-quarters of a million ia perilously like looking for trouble; and although no Government is to be blamed for taking a bold stand when some national emergency requires it, the existing sources of revenue for the construction and maintenance of roads yield so much money as things stand that so much more is excess in our present circumstances. It would of course be very pleasant to have the Dominion converted in one or two sharp blows from the horse-age to the age of high-speed caw. If we could do it without delaying progress in any other direction it would be worth doing, and would no sooner be done than jw should all be

giving thanks to the Government which

had found the courage to force our hands deep enough into our pockets. But we are after all only a very little way on our journey out of the swamp and the bush. The things we should like to do, or might with advantage do if there were nothing else equally urgent to be done, are not all safe to do out of our present resources. If the petrol tax were cut in halves, the Government would still be collecting perilously near a million pounds a year from car-owners, and if it insists on more it will have to give the clearest and strongest justification.