WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1922, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

TAXATION COMMITTEE. A HIGH PRESSURE. i SPECIAL TO GUARDIAN. Wellington, May 31. The Taxation Committee Is being bombarded with sheaves of wfitt£i! statements bearing on the various problems it was appointed to consider. These statements‘are being supplemented in most cases by Oral evidence, this course having been prescribed by the committee with a view to saving time and giving the members an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses, but personal attendance is not obligatory and every effort is being made to shorten tlie proceedings. The excessive income tax; particularly ill its application to companies is tlie chief object of attack, but tlie graduations of the land, tilN, the incidence of the Customs TarifT and the operation of other means of obtaining public revenue are receiving some protesting attention, Then there are suggestions for the adoption of flic “salt's tax,” a very ancient impost tlint lias found some favour ill Canada recently: a,demand that State and muni- i eipal trading enterprises should coil- | tribute their fair sliHie towards the Treasury and a hint that bachelors should puv for their single biiss. , j readjustment. ; The Prime Minister took paiils Jtt the ! initial sitting of the Committee to let j the members understand that iio reductions ill tlixiHillil Gould he inade this year. His statements reported from J the South during the last day or two arc ,to the same effect with the emphasis of a stiff falling revenue. He continues however; th Hi.coiiragS tlie belief tli.at j while a .reduction,of ti’ixTiMon is quite ! out of the question-si readjustmeili of, its incidence is both possible and desirable. This is tlie problem to which the Committee is devoting its very special a't ntiou, and though the meniliers 1 may not he unanimous oil the subject probably il majority of them would be in favour of revising the graduation of' the income tax and giving some _ relief to companies. This, at ally rate, is the view of people ill a better position than is the mere Outsider to kllpiV Whiii is going on. Tlife Committee iias intimated it can accept no further evidence aftei 1 Monday ilext. STATE AsT'i> AitJA : |cn’AL TRADING. Some very iuterffsting and. j figures concerning Statb. aiid municipal 1 trading undertakings in competition with private enterprises are being placed before the committee, presumably with the object of having tliis'e undertakings made subject to the same taxation ns arc company and private enterprises of the saute character. At pi sent there art', all over the country, municipal trading departments opellit- . i„" upon a large scale without' paying | a penny of income tax even if they hap- | pen to make a fjfolit, fu Wellington j gas is provided by a company and elec-' tricitv tiv the inuiiicijiality, find While j the company contributes a considerable sum to the public treasury GVGfy. year bv way of income tax the municipality is exempt altogether Irom this impost anti practically from all other forms of Stale taxation. Christchurch is in much (lie same position, witli glis, hWivil.v ' handicapped by excessive taxation, coOllK'tiug against tax-free electricity, while Auckland furnishes the horrid example of triimwav service, formerly privately owned and contributing it large sum to the public Treasury, noli' llhltnci- ' pally owned and contributing nothing at all.'

kconoMy. Tlii : vJK'kJii? theories and schemes bein,,- submitted to Hit’, committee are mostly of a highly coil trover Still llilturo ami it.is for the committee to report upon them for the guidance of the hoveriiment, and the lmmthers of Parliament Hut when all has been said and done ill tins .expect, it must remain fairly plain tiult them can <* }')*- terint reduction in the immediate future unless Very substantial economies n public- expenditure are effected Ti e accounts for tbd last quarter of tle financial year closed on March 31 bore encoufaoiiiK signs ol a beginning having°heen ,nade"with this nbsoluey necessary work, hut Mr Massey tt « have to keep his heart steeled to Ins disagreeable task if be d'tends. t<> relieve the country of an appreclab.c f tbe great burden of taxation un which it is staggering. Business men everywhere realise that the only hope •for a return to, normal conditions hex in the conversion of the 1 rime • ter's good resolutions into aduei incuts. -