EXPENDITURE ON MAINTENANCE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23964, 3 June 1943, Page 4

EXPENDITURE ON MAINTENANCE

/ » DIFFICULTIES IN WAR TIME SPECIAL RESERVE FUND SUGGESTED The reservation in a special account, free from taxation, of funds which would normally be spent on maintenance and improvements, which could be drawn when labour and materials are again plentiful, will be investigated by a special committee of the Canterbury Progress League. Last evening Mr L. W. McCaskill reported that the Marlborough Sheepowners’ Federation was the latest association to support the proposal, but, he said, their request along these lines to the Commissioner of Taxes had been declined. The idea was that the funds now available as usual, but held unspent because of the war time shortages, should be invested under the rehabilitation scheme, and when men returned from the war, work to the value of the amount subscribed should be done for each farmer. It had been suggested that apart from the maintenance of fencing, the scheme should apply to repairs and renewals, rebuilding of pastures, and application of fertilisers. The farmer was at present having an unfair impost of taxation on money he wished to and would normally spend on maintenance. Mr R. McGillivray supported the scheme, saying that the position was general throughout New Zealand. Dr. I. W. Weston said the scheme wa3»originally tabled by the Farm Accounting Association, and had since been favourably considered by the Manufacturers’ Association, the Associated Chambers of Commerce, the Farmers’ Union, and other national bodies. The Government would not lose by the scheme as money not spent in the manner suggested would still be shown for taxation purposes. The claims of the high country runholder were advanced by Mr D. S. Mackenzie, who explained the peculiar difficulties in isolated large tracts of country. There was a good body of support for the view that a general scheme would fail because of its magnitude, but that an appeal for the high-coun-try farmers, whose maintenance and labour difficulties were said to be most pronounced, would receive sympathetic consideration. Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon said that money protected from taxation would mean that revenue would have to be found in some other way. Unless the benefit was to be wide, general support would not be easy to obtain.Careful consideration of pre-war expenditure would be necessary to find the just proportion of reserve to be' allowed. A direct representation to Parliament before the presentation of the Budget was favoured by Mr W. F. McArthur; but this suggestion was rejected on the ground that no provision could be made in the current year. Other speakers said that deterioration and depreciation were so general and obvious that the proposal was only logical. The programme was rehabilitation in the truest sense of the word. Unless such a course was taken the country would face a deplorable position. A motion that provision be made, to reserve normal maintenance expenditure for use when practicable on all farms and businesses, was moved by Mr R. T. McMillan, amended in favour of high-country farmers only, and finally, when little satisfaction was obtained, an original suggestion of the chairman (Mr W. J. Walter) was adopted. The secretary-.organiser (Mr P. R. Climie) reported in committee on the reception by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) of a deputation

of the league which explained manpower difficulties.