WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 September 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE NEW PARTY. LITTLE PROGRESS. (Special to “ Guardian ”.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 8. No doubt its big battalions will enable the Government to push its Taxing Bill through the House to the desired end without any great difficulty. There are plenty of Reform members who do not like the imposition of additional taxation, and some who will abstain from voting in the last crucial test; but the discipline of the dominant party is well maintained and the next general election stii'l is fourteen or fifteen months away. There are lots of people about town, former supporters of the Government, however, who have been sadly shaken, so they say, in their allegiance to the present Government and who would welcome almost any shuffle in the political cards. Of organisation towards this end there is practically none here. Emissaries of the New Liberal Party from Auckland have been haunting the

“ precincts ” for a week or more, looking, it is whispered, for the prophet of a new evangel that wii'l draw the scattered units of the Opposition together again. It is rumoured that Sir •Joseph Ward has been approached with a view to persuading him to accept the role and that he has promised to consider tire proposition. It is unlikely, however, that the ex-Prirhe Minister will elect to enter the hurly-burly of party polities again and in his absence the role may go abegging. WHAT IS THE TAX?

In tiie course of his speech in the House on Tuesday night, when moving the second reading of the Land and Income Tax Bill, the Minister of Finance stated that a table distributed among members of tire chamber by the Taxpayers’ Federation and purporting to show the rates of taxation tho measure would impose upon various incomes was “entirely incorrect.” Having delivered himself of this judgment Mr Stewart went on to recite figures supplied to him by the Taxation Department which showed that the rates specified by the Federation were exactly 10 per cent higher than those quoted by the Department. In the “Dominion” this morning the secretary of the Federation explains the divergence between the two stories. , It seems that in compiling his figures be had dealt with “ uneanred ” incomes only, which contribute by far the larger share of the income tax and are not subject to the rebate of 10 per cent. The Department on tho other hand, had dealt with “ unearned ” incomes only, which' conthe smaller share of the tax and are subject to the 10 per cent rebate. Neither party can claim to have been entirely frank with the public, since they both omitted part of the available data; but the laugh, as it is, remains with the Federation, which gave a much closer approximation to the facts than did tile Department. CONTROL OF TOTALISATOR.

The newspapers and individuals that just the other day were belauding the late Hon. R. F. Bollard for the admirable work ho had done as Minister of Internal' Affairs seem to have missed altogether the important service he rendered to the community, in his quiet, unobtrusive way, on the very eve of his death. For many years after the totalisator was established in this country the issue of licenses to use tho machines remained a mere matter of form. A racing dull simply informed the Colonial Secretary of its intention to hold a race meeting on a certain day and a permit came along in leisurely course, whether before or after the meeting was of little consequence. In 1891 the Government laid its hand on a fraction of tho profits ' from the machine and tightened up its supervision to some extent. But it ' was the formation of the New Zealand Racing Conference some five or sixyears later that brought the totalisator under effective control. The Conference, indeed, asserted itself so cm- 1 phaticali'y even during the early years 1 of its existence that it very soon con- J trolled racing by right and the use of tho totalisator by tlie tacit consent of< tlic Government. It was not until Mr Bollard took office that the relative spheres of the Conference and the Minister in Charge were clearly defined and a grave responsibility, in fact as well as in theory, restored to the Cabinet. |

TOURIST TRAFFIC. | Tlie proceedings in the Legislative Council yesterday were brightened by a little exchange of opinions concerning tourist traffic, between the veterans, b'ir I< raneis Hell, Sir James Ali’en, and Sir Thonins .Mackenzie. Sir Thomas wanted the east and west coasts of Otago linked up by roads suitable for wheel traffic. Sir Janies mentioned the value of tourist traffic to countries like Switzerland. “ You want.” interrogated Sir Francis, “ to turn New Zealand into a Switzerland?” “ I wish to attract tourist traffic,” Sir James re-

I plied, “ and I am not enamoured of I tire tourist traffic,” Sir Francis retorted, “or of tlie tourists either.” The plain laet was, Sir Francis went on to sav, that the Government; had not enough money available to provide what was required for settlement roads, and the money in the Public Works I'und for reading purposes would not be diverted to what would be for many years to come a-road for tourist traffic oni’v. The information-gathered by Sir Thomas Mackenzie would be a valuable record to be used should the day come when funds could be applied to (ho purpose. The Government did not oppose'tourist roads, hut simply stated the urgent need for settlement roads I taking preference in the meantime.* It is pleasant to ho able to add that.) the three worthy knights subsequently I greeted one another with the utmost' cordiality.