HEAVY MOTOR TAXATION IN ULSTER.
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A Promise of No Further Increase for Two Years. The Use of the Vote Regarded as the Only Safeguard Against Political Moves.
By " Ulsterman."
0,_ABINET reconsideration of the new duties on motor kjlorrieS and' ptises in Ulster did not result in any consideration being .shown to the owners of these vehicles, nor has the subsequent interview granted by the Premier to a deputation from the three' associations resulted in
• any real concession. '
The reason is that the motorists of Ulster, just like , the motorists of Great Britain; make no use of their votes to further _motor interests.. Their commercial interests' are a Secondary consideration, They are politicians first and last, and their own business is an "also ran:" Therefore, Governments do not give a hang for resolutions passed by •motor associations nor for the most convincing arguments put forward by influential deputatiOns. They have no real influence, because they will not make "Fair play for motorists and for the mo7or trade" a real test for all candidates at parliamentary elect-ions.
Mainly for this reason the Ulster agitation against the new and oppressive duties has practically failed. The English Parliament gained its supremacy by "the power of the purse "—by refusing to vote supplies until the Stuart kings redressed its grievances. What "this power of the purse" was to the English Commons the power of the vote is to the present-day elector. But; if he is a niotorist or a motor trader, he will not use that Power for his own purposes. He is too magnanimous to think of No. 1. "It is magnificent "=but is it business'?
' An Ominous "If."
• The joint deputation from the motor trade, the Motor Coach Owners and the Commercial Users Associations was received by Sir James Craig, along with whom were the Ministers of Finance, and of Home Affairs. The
• deputation was informed that "in the.. event of the • British Government raising the taxation on heavy motor vehicles beyond • the scale laid down by the recent Finance Act (Northern Ireland), the Minister of • Finance will not ask Parliament to impose any further increase in Northern Ireland during the years 1926 and 1927." That this promise, is based on an " if " of evil omen for British owners of heavy motor vehicles is fairly obvious, It also seems obvious that the heavy Ulster duties are forerunners of heavy, if not heavier, British duties, and were introduced as part of a concerted taxation ramp.
The effect of the Ulster Cabinet's promise, together with other promises, is that the Ulster agitation has been chloroformed. If the British duties are increased to a higher level than that reached inUlster, -Ulster's • plea for "equal taxation" will be silenced, for two • years, at the expense of the British owner. If the British duties are not increased above the British level, Ulster's plea for " equal taxation" will he a plea for the present high taxation-. Even now the " equal taxation" pledge has been rendered useless for present purposes by the deputation's astoundingly willing acquiescence in the Cabinet's breach of that pledge,
An Enlightening Letter..
A letter in the Belfast Press from the pen of Mr. W. P. O'Neill, chairman of the Motor Coach Owners 'Association, sheds a good deal of light on this curious business. After stating that the Government's offer of two years' immunity from a problematic increase in British motor taxation above the Ulster level did not cut mach ice with the deputation, Mr. O'Neill goes on to say :—" What influenced our decision was the invitation extended to us by the Prime Minister to come and see Mr. Pollock about two months before the end of the year, when they will have had time to examine the new scale of duties in relation to the increase of revenue, and the promise made that any hardships suffered by the incidence of such duties will be considered and, if possible, removed. We were also influenced by the fact of an undertaking being given to afford us an opportunity to scrutinize the new Motor Bill before it is submitted to the House."
In the same letter to the Belfast Press the chairman of the Coach Owners Association, writing as one of the deputation representing the three associations—M.T.A., Coach Owners, and Commercial Motor Users—which had united to oppose the new duties, makes the following pointed comment upon the practical collapse of the agitation :—" I may add that the chairmanof the Commercial Motor Users Association -On his own a.cconnt informed the Prime Minister that he entirely approved of the new scale of duties; we felt, therefore, that we could not reasonably continue our propaganda against the increased taxes."
Whether, in accepting the Government's " concession," the deputation gave "something for nothing" or got nothing for something remains to be seen.
The Thin End of the Bus.
That the thin end of the. bus is likely to mean "a thick-ear " for the tram and to be the ultimate end of that obsolescent vehicle is beginning to dawn on the Belfast Tramways Committee and upon the general public. It seems unlikely that the present tram track will ever be relaid; three years of streetquake and muddy lava have sickened the citizens: But the Corporation appears to regard the .motorbus as a mere auxiliary, to be summoned to the aid of the trams against incursions of the trackless vehicle and to be cautiously introduced upon new routes or in ways which may clip the claws of bus services from outside areas. The tram still holds its dominant position in the mind of the Corporation.
But municipal buses are to be acquired at an early date. It was proposed that a number—six—should be bought as a test of such a service and as a means of arriving at a standard type. This proposal was deferred. A strong deputation very reasonably demanded that local body-builders should not be overlooked in this preliminary order for a local bus service.
At the last meeting of the Corporation local claims were again advanced, Councillor Henderson mentioning a rumour that a syndicate was about to place a hundred buses on the streets/ and urging a speeding-up on the part of the Corporation, together with an effort to employ local labour for this local enterprise. Bodybuilding in Belfast has attained a high degree of excellence, and there is ,a good deal of unemployment in the trade. The matter has been again postponed. •