MOTORISTS PROTEST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20009, 7 August 1939, Page 6

MOTORISTS PROTEST

NEW PETROL-TAX CHARGE

JOINT REPRESENTATIONS

£1,500,000 FOR DEFENCE

(Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. A statement that only in Germany and Italy are the petrol taxes' comparable with that in New Zealand is made in rcpresenations which have been forwarded to the Prime Minister, tiie Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, by the presidents of the North Island and South Island motoring organisations, Dr. E. E. Porritt and Mr. W: R. Carey, who protest strongly against .the imposition of the new £1,500,000 levy on motorists for defence purposes.

The letter of the .two presidents points out that at a conference ot representatives of their respective bodies, an instruction had been given that the strongest possible protest should be made against the additional levy on motor-venicle owners.

Comprising one-fifth of the total population of the Dominion, motorists were called on to pay all the usual rates and taxes, and in addition have contributed 1 -Rd per .gallon in petrol tax to the consolidated fund. The new demand, totalling £1,500,000 for defence purposes, is regarded as inequitable.

The Prime Minister is reminded that as recently as December last the motoring organisations had had an assurance that rumours of an impending increase in the petrol tax were groundless. Original Purpose of Tax

Motorists’ have been protesting for years against the sectional character of :the petrol tax. The ease of collection can never justify the increasing weight of this taxation, the letter points out; nor does’ it justify the levying of petrol tax for purposes other than the development erf highways, which was: the original intention in instituting the tax. The primary object of the tax had been subordinated in recent years, and in 1938 only half the yield of the petrol tax was available for .the Highways Board.

This year's addition to the tax will mean a revenue of £5,500,000 from petrol tax alone, collected from a section of the community which already contributes over £2,000,000 in lyre tax, registration fees, license fees, customs dues, and other special taxes.

Over half the private owners of cars in the Dominion are people on moderate wage incomes, and use their machines not merely for pleasure, but for job transport and the recreation of their families.

It is the strong contention of the combined motor unions that provision of funds for defence expenditure should be met by taxation covering equitably the whole field of taxpayers and not directly upon a section. A' suggestion is made that economies in other non-essential directions would provide the Government with ample funds for defence expenditure, without addition to the existing scale of taxation.