Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPT. 23rd, 1920. TAXATION PROPOSALS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, SEPT. 23rd, 1920. TAXATION PROPOSALS.

The Government taxation proposals are being criticised severely and specially so by the Chambers of Commerce representing the business and commercial world. At Auckland a resolution was carried which has since been endorsed by Canterbury and other city centres while the Associated Chambers in conference have also entered their protest. As the matter is of wide interest and trenches on the. economic question generally, it will be of interest to quote the Auckland motion, which was as follows:—“This chamber, having considered the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill now before Parliament, l egrets that no proposal t® alter the incidence pf taxation by transferring the responsibility for the payment of income tax to the ultimate recipient of income, has been attempted. It feels that the present incidence presses unnecessarily harshly upon the consumer, and materially contributes to the increase in the cost of living. The chamber respectfully urges the calling together of a committee of representative business men, having experience of the subject of taxation to confer with the Finance Minister and the Commissioner of Taxes upon the whole question. If it is not possible to delay the passage of the Bill until such a. conference can be held, the chamber chaws the attention of the Finance Minister to the above weakness! and lJrges that it be remedied.” When the stibjfeet was discussed recently by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, one of the speakers Mr J. G. Martin, declared that “increasing taxation is bringing the country perilously near the time wlidn business enterprise must cease and when any remaining tendency in the community for the practise of thrift and economy must be weakened.” Proceeding, Mr Martin stated that if the Government had determinedly set out to stulify and retard the natural progresss of the Dominion, and give a setback to industries and trade, it could hot have succeeded better than by means of the new income tax proposals. Industry was not only .being penalised by increasing income tax, but in addition to this, increasing wages for inside and outside staff. The increased taxation which it was proposed to ’ enforce, together with the increased rates in Post and Telegraph and (Railway services, and the" increasing cost of general expenses would probably mean that for every £IOO gross profit, £9O would he consumed in expenses, leaving £lO net profit. This would mean a reduction in idivdends and a consequent hardship on the small investor, who, in co-operative concerns, supplied the main source of capital. From the trend of the foregoing it will be realised that strong opposition is being manifested to the Government proposals, and no

doubt influential representations will b< made to the Minister of Finance. Hi: reply, it might be expected, will be to tin effect that money has to be found, anc as the House failed to admonish t-h< Government on the subject, perhap: some of tlio deputations will, and urge for retrenchment and economy ii the public"service and that right soon There will not b.o any sense of genuirn security till that is accomplished. Alsc there must be more production in tliii country, or the time will arrive wher the laboring classes will rue the daj of shorter hours and a lessened production. The high cost of goods is being intensified by this crass policy already, Germany, supposed to be “down and out” a little while ago; is “comine back,” already, because the people are at work. Germany has established credits with South American countries and is getting its raw material, and in the textile trade for instance, the Germans are working twelve hours a day to produce tile goods and reestablish their country's credit by holding the economic position down by the only stable means possible—work and production. In that way they will relieve themselves of the burden -1 of heavy taxation and till New Zealand abandons its strikes and go slows, and settles down to work and production its burdens of taxation is more likely to increase than diminish.