THE PETROL TAX

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3740, 12 January 1928, Page 3

THE PETROL TAX

EXPLAINED BY Mil. COATES. Whangarei, Last Night. In dealing with the Government’s loading policy in his main speech to-day Mr. Coates mentioned that 6000 miles of highways had been mapped out. No sooner was this done than the Government had been faced with an immediate demand for more improvements. In the first year of the programme (1924) the expenditure per mile was £sl. In 1925 it had been £73, and in 1926 it had risen to £lll. If £3 per car was only sufficient in 1924 to pay £sl per mile, who was going to pay for roading at £lll a mile? On the principle that users should pay, the petrol tax had been imposed and with the added revenue it was intended eventually to increase the mileage of the highways by 3000. The cost of maintenance was almost in exact ratio to the increase in the number of ears imported. In the year 1925-26 local bodies had contributed £185,000 for road maintenance, and in 1926-27 they had paid £273,000. Yet they had been unable to meet demands for expenditure by £200,000. Wlliere had the money come from to pay for the extra cost of roading? It had come off the land and the effect apparently had been that by-roads had suffered. The .taxation of land would have to be steadied up or they would have increased difficulty in settling new areas and in keeping on the land those settlers already there. Nobody he claimed could find fault with the Government in its effort to relieve local taxation and to place the load fairly on the shoulders of those who ought to pay.