TAXATION: £65 PER HEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 20, 24 July 1945, Page 4

TAXATION: £65 PER HEAD

Direct taxation for the year ended March 31 last cost New Zealand £65 5s lOd per head, compared with £61 11s 7d in 1944, £53 12s 4d in 1943, £41 16s 2d in 1942, £37 10s 3d in 1941, £27 5s 2d in 1940, and £23 9s 2d in 1939. These figures are given in the latest Abstract of Statistics, which details in the following table the per capita payments under the three representative years in this period:— Receipts 1939. 1942. 1944. per head. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. Consolidated Fund 20 I 0 21 II 4 27 9 10 Social ' Security 382 615 9 811 4 War tax . — 13 9 I 29 5 6 Totals . £23 9 2 41 16 2 65 5 10 Right of Challenge. A submission -that he was entitled to twelve challenges, six in respect of each of the two accused, was made by Mr. W. E. Leicester, appearing in the Supreme Court yesterday in a case alleging theft as servants. He quoted legal authority for his submission and added that a requirement was that he should indicate on behalf of which of the accused he was challenging. "It has been held, and I shall follow that," said the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), "but I doubt whether it is correct, just offhand." Might Exceed £169,000. The estimated loss of £169,000 for the year ending September 30 might well be exceeded, said Captain M. P. Congdon, traffic manager of the Wellington Harbour Board, in * evidence before the Price Tribunal yesterday afternoon, when the board's application for permission to increase its dues and charges by 37 per cent, on the 1937 level was being heard. After mentioning the smaller shipments this year compared with 1944, Captain Congdon expressed the opinion that if Wellington were to conduct its functions as the Auckland Harbour Board did, without wharfmging, it would benefit greatly financially. He said the increases asked for were about 50 per cent, on labour costs. The wages bill of the board had increased by £108,000 a year since 1937. Dunedin By-Election. Describing the result of the Dunedin North by-election as a landslide indicative of the public's protest against the Government's policy of nationalising the Bank of New Zealand and its attitude to the country quota, Mr. F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga) contended in the House of Representatives last evening that the Government should go to the country now on those questions, just as the British Government had many times gone to the country when it had proposed legislation for which it had not received the people's mandate. "Disastrous Dunedin" —from the Government viewpoint —was a triumph for the Leader of the Opposition,- said Mr. Doidge. Dunedin people did not want political control of banking—they did not want to see the country flooded with "Waimarino" money. The Government should first submit those two policies tp the coun- | try at a General Election, and it did not need to wait until next year to do that. A Trained Falcon. A sparrow hawk (Falco novae zelandiae), a true falcon, which was taken from the hills behind Queenstown, has been reared and trained successfully by Mr. Bryce Wood, an Qtago university student. Mr. Wood brought a lien bird from Queenstown at Christmas, and in Dunedin the bird made itself at home and became agreeable to everyone except its owner's dog, with which a state of armed truce exists. Mr. Wood trained the falcon to come to his hand when he whistled, and on one occasion the bird answered the call from nearly a mile away. It is given a considerable amount of freedom, although it is usually kept on a long string attached to a post in the lawn. It is a skilled flyer, and dives from a height at an angle of about 60 degrees and at a speed of about 70 miles an hour when flattening out. The falcon is about twenty inches long from beak to tail, and Mr. Wood considers that it is as sagacious as the