The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, APRIL 19, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1249, 19 April 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, APRIL 19, 1880.

ABfc-VNC'K.Vf .sn- iu fur j secnrui.m ;v.-, ta"ut-> i:t <-imt;rotu>!;>. with th»; Puberty lux. From the bead office have been issnetl to persons Hkeljr to be competent to act as assessors tbe documents newsaary to iudi-

cate tlie nature and extent of the duties that they -would be expected to perform in that capacity. They consist of " General Instructions to Assessors," "Instructions to Assessors," and Forms 2 and 3, the purport of which we hereinafter explain. It appears to be tlie intention of the department to appoint an assessor for each Koad District and town, where the latter Is of sufficient importance to necessitate it, and these assessors will be required to complete their valuations for the vear ending 31st March, 1881, on or before the 30th June, 1880. Allowing time to make a fair start, they will ba*ve little more than two months in which to accomplish this task. Few men will care to undertake so much hard, unpleasant, and responsible work I within such a short period. But we suppose that in times like these men could be found to do even more than this if necessary. Some of the instructions to assessors are unique. Clause 23 of "Instructions to Assessors" says, " Where it may be advisable, draw attention to the penal clauses 94 and 95, but this must be done with «reat tact, and, on no account are you permitted to threaten." The first of the clauses referred to pi-ovides for the imposition of a penalty of not less than L 5 and not more than LSO for obstructing the assessor, or refusing to give him the information required by the Act; the second provides that any person who makes a false declaration shall be dealt with as a perjurer. Now, | an assessor may feel perfectly assured in his own mind that a person liable to | the tax is falsifying; but how is he to be certain of that 1 It is not in the least likely that the Government will be fortunate enough to secure the services of assessors who will possess a sufficient knowledge of every business to enable them to compute the value of every class of stock-in-trade with sufficient accuracy and certainty to warrant them in even pointing to these two ugly clauses. Take, for instance, an amal"amated ironmongery, grocery, boot, and drapery business—and there are plenty such throughout the Colony. The proprietor of such a business states the value of his stock-in-trade at L2OOO. Tlie assessor casts his eyes over his shop; he fixes them on the empty tobacco, cigar, and hat boxes. His suspicions are aroused, and lie ventures to direct the attention of the proprietor, who is only in a harmless way deceiving the public* but has no intention of deceiving the Government, to the penal clauses. But" dummies'"" are not theonly tilings likely to mislead assessors. Old businesses of all kinds will necessarily be charged with old stock. For instance, in the case of the drapery, clothing, and millinery businesses, that which was fashionable last, may be unfashionable this, year, and only worth half what was given for it. In the ease of such businesses, therefore, it is not the quantity but the quality and nature of the stock that denote value. Yet an assessor, having received an estimate oi the value of the stock of a certain soft-goods tradesman, might proceed to the establishment of another, whose stock might be just as large as, or even larger than, that of his felloetradesman, but whose estimate would be much lower. How is the assessoi to know whether or not circumstances render it obligatory on him to drawattention to the penal clauses 1 Even an expert could not compute the value of such a stock without going through the tardv routine ot stock-taking, and it is not at all likely that a novice could do so. In order to properly assess the value of any stock for the purposes of the Act it would be necessary to take it item by item, and this process would have to be gone through everv three years, for stocks, as every business man knows, fluctuate in value. How is this to be done? Will tradesmen be expected to take stock triennialiy for the purposes of the Act. If so, what guarantee will the Government have that ihey have done so honestly, or that thov have, indeed, done so* at all. It appears to us that it would be just as well to accept the valuations of tx-adesmen as gospel, without inquiring as to how thev arrived at them, although in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred such estimates would probably be in their own favor. Not that they would falsify with desire to defraud the revenue, but because they would naturally resist by every means in their j>ower the imposition of what they viewed as an unjust burden. There is another weak point in the Act. Admitting that this year the value of the stock of a cei'tain establishment is coircctlv assessed at L2OOO, it may only be worth LI 500 a year afterwards, not because of reduction through sales, but b6ca;ise of depi-eciation in value consequent upon a glut in the market of the particular goods of which it consists. This depreciation in value may —as tlie Act only provides for a trienial assessment —exist for two years, or, at the end of the third year, there may be even further depreciation. It would be perfectly unjust that .a tradesman shonld be taxed on tlie amount of Jiis losses. 2so wonder tliflfc are instructed that they are to " make the opej-ation of the A ct as little burdensome and as pleasant as possxble. Then, how is the actual, or even approximate, value of book debts to be assessed ? A tradesman may have L3OOO on his books, one half of which may be bad and doubtful debts.. • Anr other may have the same amount, nearly the whole of which may turn out to be good. How is an assessor to ascertain their real value. Tlie unfoi-tunate tradesmen themselves are unable to arrive at anything like a reliable conclusion on the matter. All they know, 'judging from past experience, is that the bulk of their debtors will, at all events, be long-winded, if they do not relieve themselves in the iiisolvency conrfc, and that they will have to submit to large deductions in the aliaoc of discounts. Is it not plain that assessors will be sis incapable of judging of the real value of book debts as they will be of stock-in-trade? They will be entirely in the hands of tradesmen. No penal clauses no threatenings of the terrors of tlie law—will be of avail. How will it be possible to produce indubitable proof that a tradesman, in his estimate of the real value of his or book-debts, lias f.dsified 1 No one will be alk to prove intention to defraud, even if it is cloar beyond dispute that he has under-estimated the one or the other, or both. The Act is a mass of absurdity from the index to

the imprint, and the Government will yet regret that they did not adopt some other means of raising revenue.