The Times. Published Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 2, 1921. THE COMPULSORY LOAN.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 664, 2 September 1921, Page 4

The Times. Published Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 2, 1921. THE COMPULSORY LOAN.

The knowledge that the compulsory clauses of the last Loan Act are being put :h*to force must be extremely disconcerting to a good many landowners at the present juncture. The Act gives power to compel any person to contribute to the Loan, at 3 per cent, interest, a sum equal to his average combined income and landtax for the past three years. There is not much to be said* against this on behalf of people who have been fortunate enough to earn incomes on which taxes accrued large enough to render their game worth the Commissioner’s while tcv hunt down, but the payers of land-tax are in a very different category. The principal payers of land-tax —outside of the towns —are graziers, and almost without exception these, owing to the total collapse of the frozen meat and wool markets, have not only made no profit during the year, but are faced with a huge deficit, which, in many cases, makes it impossible to meet their financial engagements. If the Government insists on carrying its pound of flesh from these men it will mean driving scores of them into bankruptcy, and perhaps precipitating an even greater financial crisis than we have to-day. We trust that each case will be treated, fairly on its own individual merits,. otherwise the Government’s action will oe parallel to King John’s method of obtaining loans from the Jews by extracting their teeth one by one.

“We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice."