ARTHUB G. PILKINGTON BARRISTER AND SOLICITOR MASONIC CHAMBERS. Hamilton Street. HOKITIKA.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1921, Page 2

ARTHUB G. PILKINGTON BARRISTER AND SOLICITOR MASONIC CHAMBERS. Hamilton Street. HOKITIKA.

pinions condition of the railways, presumably with the intention of satisfying them of the absolute necessity of their submitting to a substantial reiluetion in their wages. The recital of the story was preceded by brief addresses from the Secretary and llie President of the Association, who very properly emphasised the wisdom of coming to an agreement with the authorities without resorting to llic wasteful methods of the strike. The Secretary thought it would he best for tlic men to face the facts and moot the Government as best they could, tie believed tlo-v eould make an amicable arrangement. The President spoke in similar term.. There was no f|UOStion. lie said, that tlm country was passing through ditiieull times. but wlintovei a lose in tliis trying period lie hoped that as a result of negotiation the (k'i>artnicnt and the men would lie able to arrive at a mutual agreemen t.

With this encouraging .introduction ‘ llic General Manager took the floor and proceeded with a recital of his story. 1 Tin.' earnings of tlio railways, ho said, ! were going hack very rapidly. This year tin' revenue had increased hv only C7U.000 while the ex|K‘iidituie had grown l>v £1170,000. Thoro was no - life in tin’ traffic at all. Tho falling off in passenger traffic was about £‘180.OIK) and llieie was a largo falling ('lf in live stock loads, l-'oi tli,, first seven months of the present financial year the falling off in passenger traffic was ri|iial to 12.000 ear loads, in live stock \ 12, .T00 truck loads and in general mer-j cliandiso 2.01X1 truck loads. Last month j the revenue, was down by CTO,OOO ! compared with that for the corresponding month of last year. For the three weeks of the present month there was a further decline of £211,000. “I had got the expenditure down £1)0.000 lastmonth.” Mr MoVillv continued in lighter vein, ‘'and I was thinking I was doing very well, but someone in tho country put the “dirty left” over m ( , and there was drop of £50.000 in the traffic.”' The General Manager, it seems necessary to explain here, is President of the New Zealand Boxing Association and given to embellishing the more florid passages of his speeches with the picturesque terms of tho, ring

Mu McYit.i.y talked much more to the same effect, hut we have quoted enough to show that his appeal to tho men was a pitiable one indeed. Apparently however, he gave no indication of the amount he would have thy railway men forego in order that his expenditure might be brought within his income. If he made any reference to this important point it has been expurgated from the official report supplied to the newspapers. However this may be, we trust that the men, following the advice of their own officials, will give the most earnest consideration to the case for economy as it was presented to them, and do nothing to imperil the amicable settlement of the wages question we all desire. At tho same time, we fee) Ikmiikl to say that we still think the deplorable state of the railway finances is largely due to th,. timid petti-fogging methods of the management. High fares and freights and restricted services seem to us far more likely to aggravate than to pure the existing evils. Trains less than a quarter full are running all over the country and stock and merchandise are travelling by road. And yet, Mr McVillv’s remedy for this pathetic state of affairs 'is still higher fares and freights and still more restriction. Tip. logical finality of this policy would he one man travelling in one train and paying the whole cost of maintaining the railways.

At the conference of associated Chambers of Commerce at Christchurch this week, the president in the course of an interesting address referred to a number of matters of general interest to the community. Since tho last conference met the paralysing offset 101 l tho world’s cataclysmic fall in prices, and consequent general dislocation of trade and commerce, had come upon them with tremendous force. To-day some countries were hampered with heavy stocks of commodities for which they could not find a market while other countries were urgently in need of those very commodities, yet no adequate scheme had been devised to overcome tho grave disabilities of exchange and lack of credit facilities that were paralysing (international trade. The conference would be well advised to direct its attention towards helping to evolve constructive plans lor thy solution of difficult problems and not waste its time in criticising the Government for any possible want of statesmanship in the past. They all knew as business men how in Rio management of their own . concerns they, like the Government, had been seriously out in their reckonings. One of the most serious problems looming ahead was the adjustment of wages. They all realised that they were fast approaching the period when employers of la-

hour,, controllers of industry and those 1 engaged in production must f face the uncongenial task of reducing wages , from the. high peak rates imposed by war conditions to something more in consonance with present economic conditions. They knew full well that the ' tide of wages had reached its flood, the ebb had commenced, and that even 01ganised unionism, however strong, could not arrest the backward flow. No reasonable employer of labour desired to sec his workmen’s wages reduced if it was at all possible to compete in the , world’s marobots by any other means, | I,ill they could not overrule economic. ■ conditions. It was to be hoped that j employers would take their men into their confidence, frankly explain why adjustments were necessary, and where high costs woidil eventually land them.

A our.AT portion of the capital which tin 1 nntions acccmulatod during a centiiry had boon lost. During the past seven years, waste and extravnganee in every form had been prevalent. The attempts to solve the difficulty, according to the “Financial "Review of Reviews,” had been to either tax excessively. inflate the currency or borrow, and many comtries were doing all three, yet any one of th«*e expedients would in its'lf tend to impoverish a nation. Our particular instrument of oppression was the income tax. The elimination of a tax on income was unreasonable. but there was a point be-

yond which it became so oppressive and restrictive that it sapped the very foundations of business, hampered

trade find recoiled on the State itself by yielding less revenue than would lie secured by imposing :i lower rate or readjusting the incidence of the tax. New Zealand’s taxation was so excessive that to the positive knowledge of business men, money was leaving this country for investment in Australia and other countries when* the taxation was lower. Their direct taxation was ' higher than in any State in Australia Canada or South .Africa and their indirect taxation higher than in the United Kingdom or any of her possessions. Taxation had increased from £•>.>1,271 income tax and £767,1-11 land tax in 1013-14 to £8,248,044 income tax and £1,088,978 land tax in 1920-21 In other words, they had in seven years more than doubled the land taxation and increased income taxation fifteen times. Of the £8,248,944 income taxation, companies contributed £4,970 017, equal to three-fifths of the whole. ! The Government had been rejieatedly

■ informed by Clumbers of Commerce 1 that taxation had reached the breaking ( point, that the incidence of taxation should be examined by a hoard of ox- ! ports, including business men, that means must ho found for reducing the pressure on mercantile and industrial companies. How far they had increased their obligations and expenditure could be deduced from the following figures . - In seven years the Govern Departments, excluding the railways increased their staffs h.v 15.90 per cent . in other words, the staff increased from . 11,587 in 1913-14 to 10.908 in 1920-21 j and salaries from £1,914,016 in 1913-14 | to £1,250,554 in 1920-21. Tu the Posj tat Department the staff increased (luring the same seven years 44.22 per cent j and the salaries 134.08 per cent. Go- ( vernment Departments must expect in thel future to rece|ivo in/>re critical | attention from the public than ever in j the past. All, he was sure, had un- | bounded faith in the future of tliia young country. They believed that the same indomitable spirit which animated their fathers in building up this country was still animating the present generation, and that the constructive genius of the race would manifest itself in finding a way out of present difficulties. Tluiy must not hang on

tenaciously to worn out theories and practices, either in production, marketing, manufacturing or business, but where necessary alter their methods.

Tim presiilont summarised question* dealt with by the associated chambers since the previous conference. He said ; that the Commissioner of Taxes was prepared to recommend a that income tax should he payable in two equal instalments in the year, hut only on the basis of the first halfyearly payment beino made payable in

advance, which was not acceptable to the chambers. During the year a commission of Customs departmental olliecds, and the chairman of the Hoard of Trade, was set up as a Customs Tariff Revision Committee, and there was recently introduced into Parliament a new Customs tariff, which came into operation from November 4. It was not his intention to comment extensively on the tariff. It was understood the matter would he considered ill detail by Parliament shortly. There were several features in the tariff, however, to which attention might In* ealietl. Provision was made for a general tariff, an intermediate tariff, ami a preferential tariff. The application of the intermediate tariff, and indeed, the extent to which the preferential tariff was ultimately to apply, had not yet been made known, tml no doulit, that would become evident when the Customs Hill came lielore Parliament. In regard to the alteration in form, New Zealand had followed the practice of Canada and the recent Australian tariff. It was understood that the intermediate tariff was to lie used for the purpose of negotiating reciprocal arrangements with other dominions, and perhaps, other ioutlines, but the Government's intentions in that regard had yet definitely to he made known. There was one other feature of the tariff which was clearly new. It was the imposition of special duties on certain goods

received from countries having a depreciated rate of exchange. There was another matter u|n>n which the association had made representation to the Government, which was likely to he the subject til legislation this session, namely, arterial roads. The -Minister of Public Works had outlined his proposed policy in regard to main roads.