NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 281, 28 March 1929, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

TAXING THE MOTORIST. In America, said Mr. V/alter Schmidt, field representative of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce of the United States, in a recent address to the Queensland Automobile Club, there were over 23,000,000 vehicles in operation on fcp* the highways. More than 600,000 miles of roads had been hard-surfac-ed. America was spending over £200,000,000 a year on highway maintenance and construction, and by Iceeping motor taxes low and using "bond issues to build roads had so encouraged the use of motor vehicles that motorists as a class were to-day -contributing 75 per cent of the £200,000,000 through direct taxation. \ It was not extravagant for a country to spend large sums on motor cars, because they earned their keep, and left something over for profit. It it were extravagant, then America should be in a bad financial condi-

cion. The opposite was the case, and that was amply proved by the fact that America, while spending large sums on motor cars and roads, had, during the last decade, registered great gains in all forms of saving. 1 Motor transport made available new areas for cultivation and production. | Industry gained by motor transport, j as production and distribution costs were cut. The motor car was about the only commodity that could be bought for less money now than before the war. L