HEAVY TAXATION

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 92, 16 October 1934, Page 12

HEAVY TAXATION

DETERS ENTERPRISE

Mr. Pai'ke W. Pope, chairman of Farmer and Co., Ltd., the great drapery establishment in Sydney, expressed gratification at the annual meeting of shareholders that the policy pursued during the year had been productive of satisfactory results. There was, he stated, marked evidence of a growing public approval of the company's methods, and an increasing demand for better-grade merchandise. Mr. Pope directed attention to the heavy burden of taxation and statutory charges, over which, he said, they had no control. He pointed nut that they still placed serious difficulties in the progress of business and were a barrier to complete rehabilitation. It could not be too strongly stressed that private enterprise must, in the final analysis, be looked upon to provide the great bulk of permanent employment. There co^ild bo no doubt that the present heavy burdons of taxation, direct and indirect, repi'oseuting an absolutely disproportionate percentage in the costs of conducting busmoss were militating against expansion and development in Australia today.

Another factor operating adversely was the high rates of tariff, on top of the high rate of exchange, which in itself was a measure of protection. Australia's high tariff wall was undoubtedly a serious barrier to the freer flow of international trade, the encouragement and development of which were admitted to be of prime importance in rehabilitating . the world, and, more particularly, primary producing countries, such as Australia, from the devastating economic crisis in which Australia had found herself in 1030 and subsequent years.