Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPT. 18th, 1920. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 September 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPT. 18th, 1920. THE WEEK.

The new taxation proposals of the Government are meeting with considerable criticism in regard to the details. Ihe proposals mainly aim at readjusting the burden of our heavy taxation, but it is being pointed out that the worst feature is that the framers have failed to adjust the burden according to the ability to pay. Particularly is this so, comments the Lyttelton Times, ra that they have overlooked or disregarded • the abnormal . prosperity of the primary producers, especially the pas- 1 toralists, although the dairy-farmers are not far behind in the matter of war gains. Customs taxation has increased through the use of the ad valorem method of levy—by over two millions since the war, and is increasing every j day. Income tax has gone from half a million to about six and a quarter . millions (of which less than a fifth is , paid by landowners). The cash returns j from farming have risen by certainly J not less than fifteen millions per annum. We purposely make a moderate j estimate, but we do not, of course, rely i only upon export figures, because the increased income from local consumption is a large item. Land tax revenue of which the farmers pay about twothirds, has gone up since 1014 by ‘t million. Now, if the whole of the increased taxation imposed during the war period had been charged against the producing interests, the payers would still be left with a profit. It is true that the increased cost of coni- ! modifies affects them, but so it does everybody else, and it is doubtful whether the cost of farming has risen as much as the cost of production in other pursuits. However, the Govern

ment is now proposing actually to reduce land taxation in respect of small and moderate estates, but will stiffen ihe graduated schedule in regard to large° estates—with the avowed object and the very worthy object, of bursting them up, to" use Mr Massey's own term. But a. bursting-up tax is not a revalue tax. It is designed, in fact, not to bring in revenue, but to compel subdivision. Consequently, the Government is looking for not very much more revenue, comparatively speaking, from the farming interests than they contributed before the war, but is imposing upon the rest of the community the principal share of additional tax- : rtbn exceeding ten millions per annum Compared with the indulgent manner in which the new scheme deals with the farmers, large and small, whose prosperity is as patent to ■'everybody, as it is unparalleled, the concessions to people who' draw “earned" incomes and to heads of families, while the principles faintly recognised are 'sound enough, can nevertheless only be described as paltry. “No wonder the pric" of land is dear, when the farmers can pocket millions of war profits everv year and escape with a fraction of their share of the war taxation. ..

Opinions on the taxation proposals from all sides are useful, and Mr Harold Beauchamp, chairman of directors of {the "Bank of New Zealand, interviewed { by the “New Zealand Times" recently said it must be generally recognised I that, in order to meet the country’s obligations, a further fourteen or fifteen millions over pre-war revenue must b-5 provided. But he had felt some surprise on learning the means by which it was proposed to raise a large proportion of the money from the mercantile community. The proposed additional tax would amount to 17J per cent in the case of the larger trading concerns, instead of the maximum amount of tax under the old Act being 1 7s. 6d in the £ it would be 8s 9d. Additional taxation was provided, too, on < the land held by traders and-maim- 1 facturers. Then, in addition to the . continuation of the war scale of taxa- 1

tion and the ilOw lapd taxes >a heavy charge was being made on the companies through the increased post and telegraph rates. As much as £5,000 a year had been levied under that head alone from one large financial institution he knew of. Companies would find that charge difficult to pass on to the public. Traders would be hit with increased wharfage carting, wages and salaries, on top of the taxation proposals and would find themselves between the upper and nether millstone. They would probably have to take the risk, as they passed on the burdens imposed upon j them, of being summoned for profiteer- j ing. He could scarcely see how ho Minister of Finance was going to raise the money he needed if lie was going to limit the powers of traders, said Mr Beauchamp. It was a, pity some scheme was not devised to meet the ease of the companies with a large capital, whereby they might, be relieved of paying the maximum amount of income tax, for the proposals were going to lie hard on the shareholders in such concerns. The tlcinjdeney must be, if the proposals went through in their present form for investors to put their money into concerns with a small amount of paid-up capital to spread their investments over a number of such companies and so avoid the heavy impost proposed. The man who had £IOOO in each of ten companies with a paid-up capital of £IO,OOO each would find himself better off than if he had liis £IO,OOO in one £1,000,000 company, as the latter would be subject to the maximum tax of ts 9d in the pound, which impost the smaller companies escaped. The Government lost a splendid opportunity of raising money in the early stages of tin war by not adopting'his idea *of a new import and export tax. In view of the extremely high prices realised for the Dominion's primary products, the amount so raised would never have been felt by the farming community whilst the mercantile community would not have suffered materially in shouldering its fair share of the burden.

Affaiks in China are again in a turmoil, but politics have been very unstable there since the time of the revolution. To depose one authority might have been easy, but to enthrone something in its place is more difficult. In other words, it is much easier to pull down than to build up; and this applies all over the world just now, with those in a destroying mood being the noisiest and therefore claiming to be the more influential. But notwithstanding the turmoil, China manages to hold her own ! as a potential factor, and the announcement from Pekin that a Commissioner is endeavouring to establish trade relations between China and Siberia is chiefly interesting as a gauge to the extent to which the Soviet Government lias established its authority in Siberia. • With the fall of Kolchak and the evacuation of all> save the Pacific ports of Siberia by the Japanese, opposition to Bolshevik rule lias disappeared. It would seem that the new Russia has very much the same policy as the old in regard to the Far East. It is only twenty years ago since Russia built the final section of the Trans-Siberian Railway through Manchuria, and started to colonise that huge and fertile district. History draws a veil over what I has .happened to the thousands of Russian settlers in Manchuria, and, indeed, in regard to almost all recent happenings in the eastern part of Siberia. The GV.echo-Slovak army which found its way from Ivieff to Vladivostok , after the Brest-Litovsk peace with Germany made tilings interesting for a while, and the necessity for rescuing them incidentally gave Japan and the Allies a good excuse for an expedition in support of Kolchak, Japan in deciding to evacuate Siberia admitted that all the Czeeho-Slovaks had not been got away, but said that they had become Bolsheviks. As soon as the Polish affair is wound up, another Russo-Japa-nese war seems not likely.

. The proposal to procure road making machinery for .the County, suggests at ! once the idea that “Good Roads for 1 Westland” should become something of a slogan. While no doubt the maehinj ery will be economical in the work accomplished, there is reason to expect quality also. A stone crushing plant is included in the outfit mentioned by the County Chairman, and this indicates that macadamised roads should result. Even if the broken metal will cost more to place on the reads than gravel—as .of course it will—the value will be in the wearing qualities of the broken metal as against gravel, which necessarily, includes a quantity of material which disappears with the', first shower. Good roads are being agitated for al} oyer the Dominion. America is the home pi the gopd roads movement, and there it is has beep well demonstrated that it pays to provide good roads from every point of view. Now that motoring is the vogue, and so many scores of locally owned motors are being acquired, the good roads will be a boon to this class of traffic. The local body should receive therefore substantial support from those who use the roads for profit or pleasure, because the condition of the road itself is

the determining factor in the amount of profit and pleasure to he desired by the user. Westland has a fair reputation for its main roads already, and if that good report can be applied with equal truth to the district roads, then the fame of the report will spread abroad, and the district will enjoy much favor with visiting motorists. There is no doubt that the district as a whole is on the threshold of a very prosperous future- It will he able to afford what it is proposed to be spent on the roadmaking implements; indeed in any case the volume of traffic to use the highways will necessitate ppttiijg the wheelbarrow and napping hammer aside—good value though they have given in the pastr— and resorting to modern methods, bring our roads and their

maintenance into line with other districts where good roads are a boon and a blessing to public traffic. The annual meeting of the Westland Racing Club last night marked the fifty-third year of the life of the Club. The years are rolling by, but still we have with us those who remember the inception of the Club in the brave days of old. The Club is a popular institution. It enjoys a very creditable record, and has been complimented from ;iine to time on its progressive spirit. 1 northern. paper this week credited ;lio Club with leading the Coast in the

matter of progressive ideftfi td promote the popularity of the sportt The Club is offering another instalment of this nature now, by determining to have only one class or enclosure at the races, and dispose of the distinction between “inside” and “outside.” This is an idea which should achieve popular results. The Club is catering better, alsc for the horse owners, and aii increase ol £I,OOO in stakes in the two years pas! is not a mean record. The Club maj not be able to command all the success it should have—that will be deferred

till there is through railway communication to the East CoasL-but meantime it is going a long way to deserve success, and its well wishers will hope to see it from now on well endowed with prosperity.