THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, MOTORING SUPPLEMENT.
ROAD SCHEMES AT HOME.
Possible Motor Taxation Foreshadowed. rosej schemes in connexion with When Mr. J. H. Thomas recently in the House of Commons ailed roads generally, to make his'engorly awaited state-
roads and classified roads do not the wisdom of raising a long represent the total expenditure period loan of anything up to that is contemplated from the £200,000,000 for the speeding-up Road Fund in the next quinquens of a gigantic road programme. The nin period; for example, quite an Government of the day were ap appreciable amount will certainly parently opposed to the suggestion, be spent on unclassified roads, and whereas, on the other hand, the it la probable that: the Lord Privy Labour Party, then in opposition, Senl'a statement referred very were quite ready to consider it clas-largely to work in addition to the favourably. That being 80, it is normal annual road improvement rather curious to find that Mr. and development that have been Thomas, who seems to have had a It is, of course, true to say that going on for many years past. very free hand in deciding upon ment regarding plans for una total of between £37,000,000 and Statements of this kind are almost the avenues he shall explore, has employment relief,
motorists £38,000,000 represents a great den! bound to be rather vague, if only not only thrown overboard the idea expected that he would have some of money, but, on the other hand, because their details at the outset of a loan, but has not even pledged thing very Interesting to
say when we remember that the. Road have not been definitely determin- the rond revenue resources in sight regarding road development Fund received annually, even at itsed. When all this is borne Into the extent of four-eleventha of
a feeling of dis- the amount that will néerue, with schemes. As a matter of fact, the present rate of revenue, well over mind, however, Lord Privy Seal was somewhat $20,000,000 n year, it is only appointment remains that more out loans or extra taxation, during disappointing in this respect, for reasonable to think that a larger has not been definitely promised the next five years. he could do ne more than say that proportion than 37,500,000 of the,, by a Minister who certainly has within the next five years the say, £110,000,000 that will flow the cause of the unemployed very Government, with the assistance into the Road Fund caffers within near his heart. of the Road Fund, propose to ex-the next five years might have been pend £87,500,. This sum was to earmarked by Mr. Thomas. be allocated at to £9,500,000 10 the trunk roads, the balance of
.going £28,000,000
It will be recollected flat before the General Election there was a Doubtless, the sums he refers to somewhat nerimonious discussion as to tu finance as having been allheated to trunk as to the possibility and
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One of the arguments that was advanced against the raising of a big loan and the spending of a very much increased sum of money; annually on the roads was that it would be practically impossible to have the work carried out econo- mically and efciently on the scale and at the rate suggested, and it is, of course, possible that Mr. Thomas, with the inside knowledge that he now possesses. may have come to the conclusion that there is more than a little to be said for the views expressed by the crities of the original scheme,
Für be it from us to advocate waste of money which is drawn directly from the pockets of motor vehicle users. Upon the whole, it will be better to await develop- ments, and examine carefully the considerations which have led the Lord Privy Seal to embark upon what at first sight seems a "some- what timid programme in the Isphere with which motorists right- ly consider themselves to be most
lesely associated.
Another puint in Mr. Thomas's. speech which will have received attention from the motoring com munity has to do with the present basis of motor taxation in this country. It is not too much say. that nobody-not even Lord Privy Seal himself-kuns precisely what are the intentions of the Ministry regarding the horse-power tax on private cara.
to the
"It is claimed by several pro- minent British car makers that the tax of £1 per horse-power re- presents an almost insuperable barrier in the development of over- sens trade. On the other hand, it is argued that a healthy home market, is essential as a starting ground for the export of British cars, and that the horsepower 15x represents the best form of pro- IL - teetion possible against vasion on a very big scale of cheap American cars with large engines. The protagonists of both views are sincere in the opinions they express, and it is at least satisfac- topy to and that Mr. Thomas, to whom the expansion of overseas markets is a matter of vital importance, is giving very serious consideration to the pea- sibility of modifying our existing taxation basis, "Past experience has shown convincingly that it is most undesirable to tamper with, motor taxation without first sécur ing a complete grasp of the many problems involved,
our
We may be fairly confident that before the Lord Privy Seal dvocates a change he will have satisfied himself that there is no likeffhond of the alteration injur- ing our home market and thereby increasing rather than reducing the acuteness, of the unemploy ment problem he has been appoint, ed to solve.
TWO MILLION TREES.
Dunlop Enterprise in Malaya.
TEMPLES FOR NATIVES.
Two million young rubber trees are now being planted in the Dun- lop plantations, Malaya, section by seetion as the heavy tropical jungle is cleared and its soil prepared over. an area of sixteen square miles..
In ten years' time it is expected thut the new trees will yield an annual erop of 5,000 tons of rub- ber. At present 8,500 tons of rub-1 ber a year is being tapped from four million trees.
Every other day a very thin нtrip of bark is cut from each tree and the fluid rubber drips into the cup below. As each cup receives, on the average, only half an ounce of dry rubber daily, between six and seven hundred million cupfula of it have to be collected in the course of twelve months,
One third of the natiye workers are Chinamen but the bulk of them are Tamil specially recruited fram the South of India.
Temples for their worship are built by the Dunlop organisation which also provides houses and hos- pitals for them, schools for their children, and rice at cost price.
Golf courses have been laid down for the European ataff whose Rugby team is making a bid for the cham- pionship of Malaya.
Early next year the dense jungle is to be tackled over a further six- teen miles of the Dunlop territory' which is more than 125 miles in extent.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21,
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