“A BLOW TO TRANSPORT”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1038, 31 July 1930, Page 12

“A BLOW TO TRANSPORT”

INCREASED PETROL-TAX ATTACKED TJIE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter PARLIAMENT BLDGS, Wed. Describing the increased petrol-tax as a heavy blow to motor transport in New Zealand, Mr. A. E. Anseli (Reform—Chalmers), who is president of the South Island Motor Union, criticised severely the Government’s policy in this respect in the House today. The motorists, he said were being doubly taxed. Mr. Ansell said he wanted to talk of what he called iniquities of the petrol-tax and what the Government called the adjustment of finances. Under the so-called adjustment the Government would strike a heavy blow at motor transport which brought so much benefit to the country and the community generally. The proceeds of the motor taxation were subsidised by the Government all over the world, but in New Zealand the Government had apparently decided that it had no financial interest in the 10,000 miles of road which carried 85 per cent, of the total road traffic in the Dominion. Motorists ■were going to be doubly taxed to provide money for the Consolidated Fund that would be used for general purposes. In 1923 the total motor-tax, including Customs, was £790,732. By 1929 the amount had increased to £3,940,975 and for this year there was a prospect of the sum being larger still. The Consolidated Fund was going to benefit at the expense of a large number of people, who could not afford the extra taxation. It would be hard on the large number of people in cities. A Member: The fares will go up. Mr. Ansell said the workers using the buses would be hit not only by tho petrol increase, but the costs of cars and lubricating oil would be increased, and it was only natural that costs must be passed on. A week ago the Prime Minister had led the county ratepayers to believe that the extra tax was not going to the Highways Board and that they were going to get the benefit of it. Mr. Forbes: I never said that. Mr. Ansell: I apologise to the Prime Minister. I understood him to say, when pressed by the Leader of the Labour Party, that the tax was going into the Highways Board. The Prime Minister: It is going into the Highways Fund. Mr. Ansell said there was not much difference. The counties were led to believe that because the tax was going into the Highways Fund it was going to be used to decrease rates. They had been disillusioned in this respect as they had been disillusioned by the Government in general.