DOMINION NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1927, Page 1

DOMINION NEWS.

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) INCOME TAX. SPECIAL EXEMPTIONS. WELLINGTON, Aug. 30. An amendment of the provisions governing special income tax exemptions up to £3OO arc contained in the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill. Under the present law, the maximum deduction of £3OO is reducible by £1 'for every £1 of assossabel income in excess of £6OO, so that the exemption is gradually diminished and disappears entirely with an assessable income of £9OO. The clause provides that this process of reduction shall commence with an income in excess of £450. From £l5O to £750 the proposed reduction in the amount of the exemption ’is £1 for every £2 of income in excess of £l5O. From £750 upwards, the reduction is at the rate of £1 or £l, until, again, the exemption disappears at £9OO.

By section 116 of the Land and Income Tax Act, 1923, every company that has issued debentures is made the agent of its debenture holders for the making of returns and the payment of debenture tax. It is proposed to extend to companies a pried lege that was extended to local bodies in 1021. that is, a company may rid itself of its statutory obligation to make returns and pay tax ion behalf of its debenture holders, by supplying to the Commissioner of Taxes certified particulars as to the debentures and their holders sufficient (o enable him. to make a personal assessment.

MURDER. THREAT. NEW PLYMOUTH. Aug. 31. “It might look as if I were a murderer because of the production of this carving knife in Court. I used to sit down after tea to write my letter to Mavis, and one night, when I was looking for something to say, nij' eyes fell on the knife and I. wrote about it.”

Stanley Reid Amies Wood made this statement when charged in the Police Court on eight counts with sending threats to kill. The letters were addressed to Mavis Lilian MacKindei, aged twenty. Both lived at Inglewood, Wood’s house overlooking the girl’s backyard. According to evidence. Wood, a bachelor, living on a. pension, had paid attention to the girl without any encouragement lor two yeais. He had sent her numerous gifts, varying from three sums of £25 to a gramophone and a sewing machine, none of which was accepted. After an eighth letter, threatening to murder the girl, the police were informed. The accused was not represented by counsel. The Magistrate entered a plea of not guilty for him, and commited him to the Supreme Court for trial.

A TRAGEDY. AUCKLAND, Aug. 31. Allan Fovvlds, aged 49, a bricklayer, residing at New Lynn, was found dead this morning. He got up as about six o’clock, and a couplo of hours later his wife, on going into the kitchen, found him lying on a chair beside tlio gas stove. His head was wrapped in a towel, and the gas was turned on. The dead ma.n had been out of work for some time, and tins had evidently preyed on his mind. DEAD BODY ON BEACH. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 31. James Heeney, until recently barman at the Rotherfield Hotel, was found washed up on the beach at New Brighton this afternoon. The body was fully clothed, and it appeared as if the man had been dead about one day. CHARGE OF INCENDIARISM. WELLINGTON, Aug. 31. James Perry, a boiler maker, aged 30, was to-day committed to the Supremo Court for trial on a charge of attempting to set fire to a house at Killiirnle on tlio night ol August 19thAceused, who admitted breaking and entering five houses in that district within the last month or so, was committed for (sentence on tho latter charges. DRUNKEN MOTORIST AUCKLAND, Aug. 31. A fine of twenty pounds was imposed in the Police Court on Harold Stanley Hall, on a charge of being intoxicated while in charge of a motor car. Accused collided with another car at a street intersection, and it was alleged he was driving at a dangerous speed. Accused denied the offence, hut Magistrate McKeen said that from accused’s own actions ho had to assume he was drunk. He was a fool. No man in his sober senses would have approached the intersection at the pace ho did. Accused’s driving license was cancelled.