WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 May 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

FARMERS AND PROTECTION

CHALLENGE TO GOVERNMENT. (Special to “Guardian”.) WELLINGTON, May 21. Presumably Captain Col Seek was speaking without the authority of his follow fanners when he told the recent Industrial Conference in its concluding session that if the men on the land wore relieved of the burden of Customs taxation they would find employment for every idle hand in the Dominion. His assertion, however, has attracted a good deal of serious attention here and, though there are few people who would join with him in denouncing the protection of local industries as the

“ curse of the country ” there are quite a number who think the whole svstem of taxation needs overhauling. As a matter of fact, Customs and Excise taxation to-day hears a considerably smaller proportion to the total taxation oi the Dominion than it did before the war, the figures being (50.05 per cent in 1012-1-1 and 51.71 per cent in 102(5-27 > and there are politicians, including several .Ministers of the Crown, who think Customs duties should he making a larger contribution to the State revenue than they are doing at the present time. Put a suggestion that the proportion of 191,8-14 should ho maintained would be. of course, quite untenable. HOW MONEY RAISED. The Customs and Excise duties collected in 1912-14 amounted to £8,553,785, while in 1926-27 they reached if9.01K.862t. During the same period the receipts from income tax increased from £554.271 to £5,422,210 from land tax from £707.451 to £1,229.007. and from death duties from £015.751 to £1.090,574. The proportions of the contributions of these various sources oL'revenue to the total receipts show that in 1915-14 Customs and Excise duties contributed over 00.05 per cent and in 1920-27 51.71 per cent; income tax 9.57 per cent and 19.(52 per cent respectively; laud tax 12.97 per cent and 7.05 per cent respectively; land tax, 12.97 per cent and 9.09 per cent respectively and other taxation <.21 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively. The volume of taxation mounted to its peak in 1920-21, when Customs and Excise reached £8,709,251, land tax £,088,979, income tax .£8,248.9-15, death duties £1,106,925, totalisator taxes £497,901, and other taxes £1,872,853, making a total of £22,184,414. A SIN MILLION REDUCTION.

It was this great advance of some six millions upon the figures of the previous year that moved the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Federation to an appeal which stirred the whole commercial and financial community into a protest against the growing volume of taxation. A deputation, seventy or eighty strong, waited upon the Prime Minister, the late Right Hon. M. EMassey, and he frankly admitted that he shared the concern of the members of the deputation and those they represented in regard to the load the taxpayers were bearing. "VS ith characteiistio courage he set, himself to lightening their burdens, sparing neither himself nor his colleagues in the process and faring badly at- the general election in the following year largely as a consequence of the vigorous enforcement of his “reduced taxation” policy. Whether his reductions oi taxation were wholly in the right direction and whether they were as comprehensive as they might have been still are debatable questions but no doubt remains as to the excellence of his intentions. POSITION TO-DAY.

To-dav, as already mentioned, many people are urging that the Customs Tariff Should bo so revised that it would produce as large a proportion ot the total revenue as it did before tlm war, that is, 60.05 per cent in ph.ee of 51.71 per cent. The effect oi this would be to reduce the amounts required from the other sources of revenue and to place an increased burden upon the shoulders of the less fortunate members of the community whole modest incomes exempt them from income tax and land tax, although these burdens by way of increased charges and increased prices in many cases are passed on to them indirectly. This probably is the peril Captain Col beck sensed ahead. At the conclusion of the war the proportion of revenue' obtained from Customs and Excise was clown to 29.18 per cent of the total, due to the large increase in the levenue obtained from incomes, but duties were never reduced ami since tbe war some of them have keen increased. Mr Seddon’s “free breakfast table ” has entirely disappeared.