The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, JULY 17, 1917 WAR TAXATION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 293, 17 July 1917, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 1917 WAR TAXATION.

"We nothxna extenuate, nor set down auoht in malice."

That New Zealand is in for a prolonged period of heavy taxation to pay her steadily mounting war bill becomes more and more evident as time goes on and shows us that although the ultimate result of the conflict is no longer in doubt the end is not yet in sight. Only second in importance to the duty ot calling tin and training our men to keep our field loree fully equipped is the necessity of providing by taxation and by way of loan the money required to pay our share of the cost of the war. Fortunately for the Colony the finances of the people were never in a more buoyant condition. Therehas never been in \'ew Zealand so much money as there is at present. Owing to the large risein prices for our produce our exports have increased in value; (lurini; the last three years by ' nearly £i ? < kH), while the cost of J our imports has remained nearly the same. It is thus evident that there is a very large sum of free money for the Treasuier to tap, the chief problem being to i devise a scheme for tapping it in

such a manner as to avoid as far as possible injustice either to classes or to individuals.

Undonbtedly the fairest of all taxes is an income-tax, carefully graduated so that while all save the extremely poor shall pay something to the state the comparatively rich and the wealthy shall be called upon to contribute handsomely, so that something approaching an equality of sacrifice should be attained. The exemption hitherto has been one of £3OO, but we consider that is far too high. In England it stands at and in Australia at £156, and it cannot be maintained that the latter figure is too low. A tax of sixpence in the pound with an exemption of £156 would mean that a man with £3OO per annum would pay only £3 12s yearly, surely not an oppressive war-tax.

We are great believers in what may be called voluntary taxes, i.e. taxes that people need only pay if and when they feel inclined to. There is a great opportunity in these for the Treasurer to raise a very considerable sum with the knowledge that he is not taking anything from anyone who feels he cannot afford it. In Great Britain the penny in the shilling upon tickets of admission to places of amusements has produced eighteen millions per annum.

The brewers have for many years enjoyed a gigantic monopoly which has been almost untouched for war-purposes. The only impost we can remember to have been put upon them was a rise in beer-duty in 1915 amounting to some £15,000 per annum. When we consider the huge profits made from brewing we can hardly look on this as an adequate coitribution to the war-chest. The question of a special tax upon bachelors is usually treated more as a joke than a serious proposal to raise revenue, but at the present juncture it is certainly worthy of consideration in the case of bachelors of military age who are either ineligible for service or have managed upon some plea or other to escape military duty. They are undoubtedly profitting greatly by the absence of our soldiers at the front giving them the pick of well-paid positions, and when it is remembered that a bachelor earning up to £3OO per annum pays absolutely no direct taxation it will be admitted that a little special attention to him by the Colonial Treasurer would be productive of good results. We sincerely hope that in the coming Budget the question of the enemy alien and his descendants will not be lost sight of. These people have been allowed to come here and amass competencies and in some cases fortunes under conditions of freedom and opportunities unknown in the countries of their origin. For obvious reasons we cannot take them to fight for us and escaping thus military obligations they remain here to pick up the plums. We would have no compunction whatever in bleeding these people freely to help to pay for the cost of the war and even if our exactions went as far as the confiscation of all their wealth they would still have the consolation of knowing they were far better off than Englishmen who were unfortunate enough to be in Germany when the war broke out.

The general question ot wartaxation is a very wide one, and we regret that the small amount of space at our disposal prevents our discussing it as fully as it deserves upon the present occasion. However, we trust to return to it as opportunity occurs and to treat upon the important subjects of an Kxport and Import Tax, the Kxcess Profits Tax as applied to farmers, and to give our reasons for disagreeing with the opinion of the Farmers' Union Conference that the necessary war-revenue ought to be raised by graduated land and income-tax.