WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 June 1922, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

TAXATION. . j A I’HKDICTION. J SPECIAL TO GUARDIAN. WELLINGTON, June 12 I Ail article, which may or may not have been inspired by some on# with knowledge and authority, appears in the “Dominion” this morning foreshadowing the ’Government’s taxation proposals in much the same terms as they nlieady have been foreshadowed in these columns. “The Prime Minister,” the writer says, “lias declared that the incidence of taxation requires to he revi.'v.e 1. The defects of the present system of company taxation have been pressed upon him strongly by the business community. The Prime Minister has not made any promise, hut it may he assumed that the policy measure he lias mentioned will deal with some of the hardships and anomalies that have lieen mentioned of late. The Taxation Committee which is now sitting will have a mass of information on these points to place before tbe Government and its report may help to provide "the basis of the promised policy measure.” A sub-committee of the Taxation Committee is now drafting its report and it is expected the document will he in the hands of the Government before the end of the current week. THE GOYKENMEXT’S action.

What the Government will do with li e report depends, of ciurse, very largely upon its character and upon its own ability to grant concessions. Mr Massey made it quite clear before the Committee commenced its sittings that as Minister of Finance he could not afford to forego any of Hie revenue he at present is receiving. He was so definite on this point that the Members of the Committee must have realised it would be .quite futile to suggest redactions that were not counter-bal-anced by increases. This limited their field of exploration to the. means of removing the hardships and anomalies admitted by Hit- Prime Minister. The business community, as the writer in the “Dominion” says, has been very busy in laying the defects of the system of com pa n v taxation before the Committee and to all appearance it lias made out a very strong ease for a thorough overhaul of the whole system It at anv rate, has on its side the argument that all the Australian States are following in this respect an ( almost opposite policy to the one fol- . lowed hv New Zealand. STVTE AND MUNICIPAL ENTER- i PRISES. . '

The Committee has been within its order of reference in inquiring into new systems or taxation and it has given some attention to the Canadian Sales Tax and to the proposal for the tax a-. tinn of Sta’e and Municipal enter- , prises. Probably the sales tax has not j been sufficiently commended to make . anv very strong appeal to the mein- , bers. As it has been presented to tlie Committee, it looks very much like a supnlenu’iitary on slums . duty MU| m that cruise it is attractive to neither . the seller nor the buyer. But the tax- | at'c.n of State and Municipal enterpii.es hears qui’e a different appear-: At present State Coal Mines and Municipal Gas Works, for instance, escape all State taxation, and consequently compete on very unfair terms with privately owned concerns of the san e character, which pay nlUormao Sta’e taxation in admtion to loc. , rates and charges. It is estimated I roughlv. that about half a nullum • , v PI ,7 is lost to the Treasury by this disc imillation, and it will not he at , all surprising if this anomaly is marUd down by the Taxation Committee lot , extinction. i THE LICENSING POLL. , The Prime Minister s definite *tati ment that there will be no amendment to the liquor law during the approaching session of Parliament leaves the parties to the licensing contest to fig out thsi» differences on the same ground as they did three years ago. There can he no doubt that the i"t > sion of “State Control” on the ballot, paper in 1910 materially t | Mod,rates towards their success but , it is doubtful if it will serve them as j well next December. The 1 | understand that the real 0^ would prefer the middle ritlHT of the other issues " jnvav then* vntos • their conscience. Both sides ai ganising on a big scale, but on t .