TAXATION AND WEALTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 33

TAXATION AND WEALTH.

INCREASES AND COMPARISONS

STATEMENT BY DR FINDLAY.

WELLINGTON, September 8

On being int-er-view-ed by a. SC«-w Zealand Times reporter to-night, the Hon. Dr Findlay stated in amplification of his recent speeches tint the capital value of land alone in the Dominion increased by £148,312,267 betwee.i 1891 and 1909, and this valu J was 30 per cent, under the actual t-ales. The increase in the gro*>s pubhc debt in the past 18 years was £32.108.184, or £14 per head of European population. At the same time the increase in public and private wealth was £118 per head The increase in the value of railways and equipment was £13,844,018, and the increased investment supplied to advanoes to settlers, lands for settlement, State coal mines, and loans to local bodies, etc., was £22,949,970, making a total of

£36,794,028, all directly reproductive, an-* carrying more than the interest gaid, so that the whole of the increased public debt since 1891 was earning more than the additional interest paid. DuTing the past 18 years the European population had increased by 326,584, equal to 51 per cent. The total private wealth of the Dominion ■was estimated at the" huge sum of £507,969,333, and the public and private wealtE, at a moderate estimate, was computed at £600,000,000. The increase in. the annual incomes returned for taxation in 15 years was over £10,000,000. For every £1,000,000 of public expenditure during the past 18 years the wealtti, ; largely resulting therefrom, had increased than £8,000,000. This would, in commer-. cial circles, be considered sound business. The population had not increased 'as rapidly as wealth and. incomes. While the taxation, taken, as a total collection, had increased, wealth and incomes had increased at very much greater rate, thus providing means of easy payment of any, taxation, which, levied at the old rate, had, I owing to the increased wealth, increased in amount. The total interest paid on the public debt in 1891 was £1,600,237, equal to £2 13s 6d per head of the European population, and the percentage of revenue absorbed by the public debt charges was 39.46 per cent. In 1908 the total interest paid on the public debt was £2,186,419, equal to £2 7s 3d per head of .the European population, and the percentage of revenue- absorbed by the public debt charges was 24.15 per cent. — a reduction in the rate of interest' paid per head of population of 6s 3d, equal to 11 per cent., and a reduction of the- percentage of revenue absorbed by the public debt charges of 15.30 per cent. Let these facts and figures, added Dr Fincflay, answer the repeated misstatement that this country was groaning under the crushing burden" of tha public debt. Surely the increase of debt, which not only paid itself, but which helped to enrich thousands of our people, was not" a national disaster, and surely tha people so . enriched could scarcely complain that the growth of theil wealth called at the old rate* of levy foi a little larger payment in the shape ol direct taxation. Most of the 890,35 a people in New Zealand who had not sufficient land or income to call for taxation wished, he doubted not, that they had the same cause to complain.