NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 119, 4 February 1926, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

MOTOR NOTES.

A PETROL TAX. (By Motus.) The Tauranga County Council, at its last meeting, on the motion of Cr. W. F. Mundt, unanimously approved of a proposal to institute a petrol tax, “ with suitable exemptions for dairying and other industries.” Many people who have given some thought to the various systems of taxation of motors are agreed that the petrol tax would be the fairest of all imposts but are daunted by the difficulties of application. Admittedly, dairymen using petrol for milking machine power units, and fishermen and launch proprietors, would require exemption, as would other classes of the community. These necessary and first differentiations would not only lead to abuses, but would also probably be costly and difficult to apply, and it is therefore likely that the tyre tax will hold its place in this country. The legislation and general rules and regulations in regard to motor traffic are already so complicated that the authors thereof would themselves be at a loss to unravel some" of the knotty problems that arise therefrom, and we should hesitate and ponder well before adding new complications. The effects of a given mode of taxation may be very far reaching and have highly-prejudicial effects. Thus, it has long been realised that the English system of taxation on the basis of cylinder capacity has had a detrimental effect on the overseas trade. Happily, by sheer engineering ingenuity, the English manufacturer lias turned a weakness into a source of strength, just as a good general changes a reverse into a victory, and even America is preparing to follow the English design. But this fortunate outcome is merely one more proof that able men make make a success of even a bad system ; it is no tribute to the system itself. The problem of motor taxation is not one to be hastily revolutionised at a sitting of a county council dealing with the subject merely as one item on an extensive and varied agenda paper.