CORRESPONDENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 March 1924, Page 1

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE BURDEN OF TAXATION. (To the Editor). Sir, —I am one of those who do detect any humour in the Prime Minister’s suggestion to the delegates attending the Commercial Travellers’ Conference that Customs duties should not be included in the official returns of the amount of taxation per head of population. It seemed to me that Mr .Massey, taken aback by Air Philip Snowden’s figures showing New Zealand to be almost as heavily taxed as the poor old .Mother Country, was anxious to get Customs duties excluded from the calculation in order that the gravity of the Dominion’s position might be in some measure obscured. Of course the adoption of the Minister’s suggestion would largely broaden the gap between New Zealand’s and Britain’s figures, the Dominion, per head of population, paying much more in Customs duties than does the -Mother Country. But apparently Air .Massey, in his haste to make the best of a bad job, had over-looked the fact that the exclusion of Customs duties would make the comparison between Australia’s taxation and New Zealand’s even more unfavourable to the Dominion than it is with their inclusion. Let me state the facts brieflv.

The States of Australia anil the Commonwealth lia.se their taxation on the same broad foundation as New Zealand does and in 1922, the latest year for which official figures are available, the States collected C 15,203,646 and the Commonwealth £52,427,42], a total of £70,631,087. During the same period New Zealand, according to the Year Book, collected a total of £16,370,516. Deducting from these respective totals the amount of Customs duties they include we have a balance of £31,004,113 in Australia and a balance of £10,81.6,132 in New Zealand. These figures show, on the population of 1921, again the latest available, that the taxation per head of population, excluding Customs duties, was £5 11s i’d in Australia and £8 16s in New Zealand. This surely is not a state of affairs Mr Alasscy would wish to blazon abroad in official returns.

ALv own concern over the- huge taxation under which this country is labouring is not a party concern. 1 realise that having doubled our public debt by doing our duty during the war it would he churlish to call out against the increased charges for interest and sinking fund. These additional burdens were inevitable and tbe country’s just obligations must be discharged. But the crying needs of tlie hour are sane public and private economy and a radical revision of the incidence of taxation. With these two things attained and with the politicians devoting themselves more to the interests of the State and less to the interests of the party, Now Zealand will surmount its accumulated difficulties all in good time. But without a frank realisation of the gravity of the situation and an earnest and sustained effort to promote better conditions the country may flounder in the slougi* of despond for litany it long year yet.

I am etc., INDIRECT TAXPAYER Wellington. -March 17th.