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Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15989, 25 August 1917, Page 8

The. peoplo who havo been protesting against tho abolition of the excels profits tax will find little comfort in the report made by the Commissions of Taxes. This official cares nothing for political controversy, and his •view of the tax is that of an unbiassed expert with special knowledge of tho wci} in which the tax operates and tho extent of its usefulness as an instrument of revenue. Tlio public aro not so incapable of weighing evidence as not to be able to prefer the Commissioner s report to tho vaguo clamour concerning tens of millions of war profits pouched by the producers. These tens of millions waiting for Sir Joseph to stretch forth his hand are a fiction of those "popular" economists who have worked themselves up into believing that the 3d tax on tea will turn half tho population into paupers.

Sir Joseph quoted some examples of the inequitable working of tax. One business "with a taxable inconic of £398,000 was not liable to taxation under the "excess profits" clause, while another business with an assessable income of £2460 paid £8-10 under the clause. This appears to us qmjo an absurd condition of things. Again, a farmer with an inconio of £6^ } 000 went free of this tax, and another with an income of £5093 paid over t;0 per cent, of his income. Amongst professional men anomalies almost as glaring came to light. « As to the tax on tea, Sir Joseph Ward made a very pertinent observation. The Government, ho said, had been charged with want of courage in imposing a tax on tea, but- perhaps, ho added, the opposition to it also arose from want of courage on the Tart of members who were afraid to los»? votes by supporting it. Sir Joseph might as well havo dispensed with the "perhaps." There is no question that the opposition to the tea tax is wholly due to anxiety to appear as "tlio friends of the people." It amounts to only a few pence —less, certainly, than sixpenco per week for tho average household, and it is no hardship to anybody to pay that sum. But the popularity-hunting politician dreads tho "voice" at some future political meeting, asking, "Did you not vote to tax the poor man's cup of tea?", It is not surprising that this possibility should be terrifying to some peoplo; but it is surely surprising that anybody should take the lino that implies that the general body of the people are reluctant to pay even an insignificant trifle towards tho State's expenses in time of war.

The founders and "supporters of tho Canterbury Aviation Company liavo good reason for satisfaction with tho first fruits of their enterprise. Yesterday, in weather which, a 6 tho instructor said, would not have been regarded as suitable for tho purpose at Hendon, tho headquarters of aviation in England, the six young men who havo the distinction of being the first aviators trained in the South Island, passed their examination for their flying certificates, and did go', one gathers, "with honours." They are now ready to go Home to receive there the final course of training which will fit them to take their places with the mon of the Royal Flying Corps, who have'won undying renown in the war. If they aro sent to France, they will find there, as on every fighting front on land or sea, or in tho air, other New Zealanders, including several from Christchurch, who had to go Home to learn their, flying, and are now seasoned veterans in what must be the most thrilling of all branches of the great game of war. May all good fortune attend them all! —-4 A correspondent, referring to our discussion of the injustice and absurdity of exempting from Imperial taxation municipal trading concerns, complains of a kindred anomaly. All the private coal dealers, he says, are required to pay local rates, . but the State Coal Depot is not. Just as there is no reason why municipalities which engage in trade should not pay taxes to tho general Government the same as are required of tho private businesses with -which they compete, so it is absurd and unjust that the Government should frot pay local rates. It is possible that in tho sum the payments, if made in accordance with sound principles, might balanco each other for the wholo Dominion, but that signifies nothing. For in individual cases the balances would be now on one side and now on tho other. Incidentally, thero are such anomalies as we have pointed out — namely, tho taxing cf gas-users in order to benefit tho users of electric light. Tho right course is so obvious, and so easy to take, that it is surprising that the wrong course is persisted in.

The people of this country, and especially of Canterbury (who subscribed the bulk of the money and goods), had no expectation of reward or applause when they gave so generously for the relief of the people of Belgium. Yet they will, we are sure, learn with pleasure that the New Zealand effort has been a moving and astonishing tiling to people at Home. In the last days of Juno the National Committee for Relief in Belgium held its second an-

nual meeting, and Mr Balfour, in moving the adoption of the report, made the following reference to this conn-, try; — •'■l think it is a most striking and impressive document. Thero arc _two special cases of liberal subscriptions which move me greatly The. most touching is the contribution by children to children —by the children of the .Lmpiro whether here or overseas, to the unhappy children of Belgium still under the heel of the oppressor. The oilier is the extraordinary contribution made bv one of our Dominions New Zealand'. (Cheers.) Where all have boon so generous it seems invidious and unnecessary to single out any particular case. Yet it is one of tho most striking things in my experience, at all events, that a community should subscribe nearly 10s a head —men, women and children —of the whole popu.ation to the cause of a country removed from them by half the circuit of the globe, •whose sufferings they can read about, but cannot witness, who are not, as we are, in tho very neighbourhood of the scene of outrage and tragedy, but who can only judge of it through the eyes and cars of a sympathetic imagination. I think it is a most remarkable proor, not merely of the generosity of New Zealand, but of the manner in which it has been found nossible, throughout the whole world, for people to feel, not merely an abstract sympathy, but a real living emotion in the face of distant tragedies which can by no possibility touch themselves."