AN OCCASION FOR FRANKNESS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 May 1942, Page 2

AN OCCASION FOR FRANKNESS.

ALTHOUGH there has not yet been any official intimation to that effect, it is stated to be likely that a more or less substantial reduction will be made in motor licensing and compulsory insurance charges for the period which opens on July 1 next. The Government evidently ought to make a frank statement on this subject without delay. Some loss of revenue has to be faced in any case, for the reason that unless a reasonable reduction is made in licensing and other charges a great many motorists will be likely to lay up their cars. Simple » equity demands that insurance charges should be reduced considerably, for as compared with normal conditions the scale of risk is reduced greatly.

If the Government is content that a, large proportion of private cars should be laid up, there is no more to be said. Private motorists admittedly have no right to complain about the limitations imposed, in Avar conditions, on the. use of their vehicles. It is not reasonable, however, that motorists should

be expected, in these conditions, to pay the same licensing and insurance fees as when it was open to them to use their cars to any extent they liked, the more so since there is no guarantee that petrol supplies will not be cut off completely early in the new licensing year. It is for the Government to determine whether it is or is not worth while, in the national interest, to enable motorists, at moderate cost, to keep their vehicles in running order —there is no question for the time being of their being allowed to do more than this. Unless an appreciable reduction in fees is announced officially before the relicensing date arrives' it will have to be concluded that the Government considers that it does not matter whether a large proportion of the private cars in the Dominion are or are not kept mobile.