WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE RAGLAN SEAT. ; THE HON. R. F. BOLLARD’S ; SUCCESSOR. | (Special to “ Guardian WELLINGTON, Aug. 29. ! Now tluvt the late Mr R. F. Bollard lias boon laid to rest with appropriate tributes to his personal worth and hi.s pubi'ic service the quidnuncs about Parliament House are free to speculate a» t<t his successor in the representation of Raglan and the disposition of the portfolio he held at the time of his death. It is fairly obvious that Ministers, notwithstanding the huge maj-, ority they stall command, are partieu-j larly anxious that nothing should go j wrong with the filling of this seat. • This, in the circumstances, is not; unnatural. A tendency towards indc- j pendente on the part of three or four] members of the Reform Party muni- j tested itself in the very first sesssiou I after Mr Coates came back iron) the eonstitucneie.s with what he was entitled ] to regard as a “ mandate from the I people,” and a rebuff at the polls just] now, though it scarcely would affect the, rei’ative strength of the parties at all might seriously impair the Prime Minister’s mauu with the great body of electors. To-day Mr A. H. Waring, a farmer tit Taupiri, an ardent Reformer and a close friend of the late member, is being mentioned as the Government’s probable champion. Mr Waring. it is said, would have the support ot a majority of the tanners and or many of the workers. THE MAN AND THE MINISTER. The Labour Party, so several of its representatives in the House say, has many friends in the Raglan constituency, but so far it has given no indication of its intentions in regard to the approaching contest, and the Government is not- going to let the grass grow under its feet, while Mr Holland and his friends make up their minds. At the last general election, wlteri Mr Bollard went to the poll for the first time with the kudos of ministerial' rank, 4,470 votes were east for Reform and 2,801 for Labour. Nationalists and Country Party, leaving the sitting member with a majority ot 1,(>09; hut a new man without experience and without clarion cries of “ Coates oil ” and “ More Business in Government and Less Government in Business ” scarcely could hope to do so well ; but. the party in possession always has advantages, which are multiplied, of course, by a divided opposition. As for the now Minister no appointment would be more popular than that of Sii Heaton Rhodes, who already sits in the Cabinet without a portfolio, and perhaps could he persuaded to take up work for which lie is particularly well adapted and equipped. Tho fact of his sitting in the Legislative Council would detract hut little from his usefulness. COMPANY TAXATION.

The Minister of Finance still main-j tains that the incidence of the company; tax, which ho admits to be illogical i and unfair, cannot he changed without involving the State in a loss of a mil- ; lion a year. He ignores entirely the | recommendations of the Taxation Commission on this point, mid, apparently. ' accepts the dictum of the Secretary of tlie Treasury that the same amount of money could not be obtained from an equitable system of taxation as is being obtained from an inequitable one. What the Minister and the Secretary seem unable to realise is that this is l

not n question of revenue but n ques tion of method. They corn'd just as easily obtain a million more or a million less from one system ns they could from the other. Tho Taxation Commission, composed of business men and experts of the very highest .standing. pleaded with the authorities to put its recommendations to a safe test. “ ff a complete change is found difficult or impracticable,” it suggested, ‘ then a beginning should he made by taxing individuals in respect of tiio dividends received by them from companies. and supplementing the revenue j obtained in this way by a moderate rate ; rate on all profits of companies.” This, j in effect, is tbo system followed by the

Australian States with much more sat-; isfactory results than are obtained in : New Zealand. MOW IT WORKS. | IJ II fortunately tho injustieo of the ! system of collecting company income tax in this country does not end with compelling people who would pay no tax at all, were their income derived from any other source, to pay at the maximum rate of 4.s fid in the pound. I There is another effect of this rough j and ready system of enforcing an in- ' equitable system which is of even greater public concern. The companies knowing that they must pay reasonable dividends to their shareholders or lose their capital liavo not only .to charge remunerative rates for their commodities and services, hut also to make provision for the payment of taxation at the rate of nearly 25 per cent upon their earnings. The inevitable results of this imposition are to discourage in -i vestment in company enterprises, particularly in those in which the farmers are specially interested, and to largely raise the charges for commodities and services, as already mentioned, and so increase the cost of living. Economists all over the world have emphasised the evil effects of this vicious circle of “ passing on,” and New Zealand seems to he the only country that has continued to ignore their warnings and to maintain an unfair system of taxation at tho bidding of an official autocracy.