HEAVY TAXATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 34, 3 May 1927, Page 10

HEAVY TAXATION

ON ENGLISH OWNERS COMPARED WITH NEW ZEALAND Compared with the £2 a year paid in direct taxation by the New Zealand motorist, the English taxation is very heavy. Once more, as budget time approached, a few months ago, the British motorist allowed himself to hope that perhaps there might be some relaxation in the licence duty on automobiles; and once more he has been disappointed. Through the mysterious semi-official channels that seem to overflow at this time of the year word went forth that the Chancellor of the Exchequer regretted that it had not been found practicable to alter the present system of taxation. This means that motor-cars will continue to pay at the rate of £ 1 per horse-power a year (and, incidentally, that most American cars will be taxed £2O or more annually). An apparent concession for the motorist lay In the fact that in the proposed new motor-car legislation the present speed limit of twenty miles an hour would be abolished: but there were not lacking drivers who declared that the concession was more apparent than real. It is to be superseded by two regulations—“driving to the public danger” and “driving at a' speed excessive under the circumstances.” The arbiter of speed in each case is to be the local police force. Inasmuch as there are on the main roads out of London towns that add notoriously and appreciably to their total revenue by the fines they collect from motorists on fine Sundays, the general body of automobilists is beginning to wonder whether it has not exchanged the prosaic safeguard of the twenty-mile limit for the questionable mercies of the local constabularies. f DISC WHEELS RETURNING Disc wheels are coming back, if they ever actually went away. A greater number of the models at the national show had this type of wheel-than ever before. The old objection to this type of wheel seemed to concern itself chiefly with the noises it kept beneath the car. Now that body and chassis silence has reached such remarkable heights, this objection has been removed. Friends of the disc declare it lends itself to adornment more readily than any other type and that it has a large margin when it comes to ease of cleaning.