THE NEW DEATH DUTIES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 785, 7 April 1910, Page 4

THE NEW DEATH DUTIES.

Mr. Barclay's exposure of the manner in which the new death duties penalise the poor as well as the rich has drawn a reply from the Attorney-General which is not without points of interest. As was to be oxpectcd, Dr. Findlay's defence of the hardship inflicted in the caso under discussion did not touch at all upon the real question raised— that of the imposition of new andheavy taxation on small estates. It

was of course impossible to deny that this new taxation of the poor had been imposed—the Act speaks for itself, and tho facts quoted by Mr. Barclay arc unanswerable. But Dr. Fintlay made an elaborate explanation, which in effect'shows that this increased burden has been added to relieve some small estates at tho expense of other estates in , cases equally small. If the poor man's estate goes to his family it escapes duty, if it goes to strangers (in the sense only that they are not relatives) it pays the duty. This is true enough, but it docs not alter the fact that the Government has added new taxation which presses on the poorer classes in the manner. described by Mr. Barclay. Dr. Findlay, in the course of his statement on the subject, made one remark which we cannot help thinking was very unfortunate. He commented on the fact that the old man whose tiny estate in this particular ease was not permitted to escape the close-drawn meshes of the tax collector's net, was an old age pensioner, as though that bad any bearing on the principle involved. The old ago pension is given by the country as a right, not as a charitable dole. Dr. Findlay knows this, and he must know also—indeed, he states it in his comments—that the tax would have been collected in any case. Why then does he in one breath attempt to defend this new taxation of. the poor, and in the 'next seek to obscure the issue by dragging in quite irrelevant references to old age pensioners? . . ■