EXCESSIVE TAXATION IN ULSTER.
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Ulster Government Declares War on Commercial Motors. £110 per Annum Tax on a Five-tonner and £128 for a Bus.
By " Ulsterman."
IT was on December 9th that the Governuient of Northern Ireland, suppressing its own committee's report on motor taxation, opened fire on the motorbuses and lorries that have revolutionized the passenger and goods traffic of Ulster, to the great advantage of the public and the envious rage of the railway monopolists, whose fares and freights have been forced clown by this competition to something like reasonable figures.
As instances of the ferocity of the new duties, it is sufficient to point out that the tax on a vehicle exceeding five tons, unladen, and drawing a trailer, is to be Increased from £32 per annum to £110, an increase of almost 250 per cent.; and that the former flat rate Of £70 on a motorbus seating "more than 32 persons" is. to be increased by successive leaps and bounds until it reaches £128 for a vehicle seating "more than 56 but not more than 64!"
The Opposition of the Commercial Motor Interests.
No sooner had these pro-railway proposals been announced than the motor trade was up in arms against them, reinforced by the Press and all those members of the general public who saw that their business interests and their facilities for economic travel were being menaced. At a meeting of. the Motor Trade Association, held on December 14th, Captain S. j. Hutchinson, who was one of Ulster's representatives on the British Departmental Committee which inquired into motor taxation and was also a member of the subsequent •Motor Tax Committee appointed by the Ulster Government, made a full and able statement on the subject. It appears that an official of the Finance Ministry made an unexpected appearance at the Ulster Committee, '" with a very extravagant idea of what heavy cOmmercial vehicles and motorbuses should pay in the way of taxation."
This ifaportant newcomer's ideas were embodied in one of the two scales recommended by the Committee. HIS scale was recommended only if the Government wished to raise a certain amount of money. A second scale, much more moderate than that of the important newcomer's, was recommended by the Committee as "meeting requirements much more effectively in view of public interest and public service."
The Government suppressed the report of its own committee and introduced a series :6A proposals on a scale higher than that of the important newcomer, although officials from the Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance thought the newcomer's scale "much too high." After a series of indignant speeches had been made, the M.T.A. adopted a vigorous resolution of protest.
Commercial Vehicle Owners Take Action.
A strong deputation from the Commercial Motor Users Association visited the Minister of Commerce on December 15th. By a strange piece of irony, this Minister, whose duty it is to encourage commerce, had introduced the anti-commerce proposals of December 9th. It is stated that the arguments of the deputation made no impression upon this helpful Minister, who cordially applauded himself for his willingness to ,Pay the increased rates on his own firm's vehicles and advised the deputation to go and cultivate a similar
spirit. •
The Ulster Motor Coach Chimers' Association also took action. After holding a special meeting, they went —35 of them—in a bOdy and in a bus to the House of Parliament, where, for two hours, they explained matters to an informal meeting of M.P.s and received many promises of support, some of which were kept and some of which were not. Special thanks are due to the Belfast Press—particularly to the Northern Wkig—for editorial support and for publishing many well-informed letters, in which it was pointed out that, in levying heavier motor taxes on the Ulster trader than his British colleague has to pay, the Ulster Government is breaking Ulf oft-repeated pledge; that the new proposals are due to the pressure of railway interests and of those backward agricultural communities who think in terms of ha'pence, of the horse mid cart, and of the pot-holey road; and that in subsidizing the railways out of the "commercial life-blood" of the Province, the Government is sacrificing the well-being of the people
to the interests of a class.. '
Feet versus Heads.
On December 15th the Finance Minister, Mr. H. 1.1L Pollock, introduced the provisions•of the Ulster Finance
which relates to mechanically propelled vehicles. Mr. Pollock shares with Milton's " Belial " a charming and useful faculty ; he can "make the worse appear the better reason " ; and as the Government majority' stands in mortal fear of the Heaven-sent Chancellor, he had little difficulty in persuading them that the new taxes were not only inevitable, but absolutely just to all concerned. On the 15th and 16th all the important amendments were proved to be fallacious by the feet of the "patient oxen" who steadily made their way toward the Government lorry to the crack of the Party whip.
Bight members, belonging to the Independent Unionist, the Nationalist, and the Labour Parties, earned, the gratittale of the motor trade and of the general public by their steady opposition to this harsh and hasty piece of class legislation, forced through a supposedly democratic House in the interest of rural reactionaries on the one hand and, on the other, of an effete but wellbuttressed system of transport monopoly.
Small Mercies Thankfully Received.
During the passage..of the Bill two small concessions were made to the lorry, but none to the motorbus. These concessions reduce the tax on vehicles not exceeding 12 cwt. in weight from 112 to 110, and on the point of nominal weights a margin is..given of 5 cwt. in each of the classes clown the scale.
The Petrol Concession.
As the result of a prolonged agitation, in which the M.T.A. and other organizations took part, the petrol companies recently took a penny per gallon off the price in the Belfast zone and a halfpenny off the price in the Londonderry zone. These concessions affect 80 per cent. of the petrol (about 8,000,000 gallons this yeah) used in Ulster, and although the motorist in the zone surrounding Belfast will still pay 25. per gallon more than the London price, the saving to Ulster is calculated at £25,000 per annum. But this coneesgion may now be withdrawn, for, owing to the change in taxation, the petrol companies, it is stated, are likely to revert to the former prices, seeing that the concession was made on the former basis of taxation. Thus the conCession which the Minister, of Commerce took a proMinent part in securing may be withdrawn as the result of the new duties which he had the inappropriate honour of introducing on the ninth of this month.