WHO ARE THE CAPITALISTS?

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 223, 14 May 1932, Page 4

WHO ARE THE CAPITALISTS?

i i Mr. J. T. Lang, the picturesque Premier of New South ! Wales, has done it again. Whatever other qualities he may or 1 raay not possess he certainly has a peffect genius for springing surprises. Driven more than once into a corner from which j escape appeared humanly impossible, he has nntil now succeeded in providing at the eleventh hour some new weapon, the unex•pected nature of which has so surprised his enemies that he has been able to snatch a further respite. This time, however, he seems to have over-reached himself, and the Governor has disinissed him and his ministers, apparently for _ ordering State officers to disobey Federal laws. His last little joke v/as his mortgage taxation bill, which provides that a tax oqual to ten per cent. of the principal sum sectired must be paid to the State by all mortgagees and debentitre holders within fourteen days of the passage of the Act. Failure to pay by due date will involve confiscation by the State of the whole of the taxpayer's rights, title and interest in the mortgage or other security. Pretending to believe that it is only the wealthy who have denounced his policy of lepudiation, Mr. Lang explains that his new plan Will give the monied class the opportunity to 'pay those debts which he claims that the people as a whole are unable to pay. The measure is, of course, purely and simply a capital levy coupled with a particularly unjust and c5rnical method of advancing the principal socialistic policy, the socialisation of the meaiis of production, distribution and exchange. But considered solely as a means of levying on capital for the relief of the State, how would it work, and whom would it hit? A moment's consideration of the provision ih the Bill for payment of the tax within fourteen clays of its becoming law destroys any possibility of its acceptance as a genuine revenue measure. It obviously is impossible that the majority of investors in such long term se'curities as mortgages and debentures will be able to find a sum equal "to ten per cent. of their capital so invested in so short a time, especially when the value as security for loans of those instruments has just been heavily depreciated if not entirely extinguished. For such would be one of the first eifects of the measure. This answers the question how it would work. There remains the question, whom would it hit, and unfortunately for Mr. Lang's claims as an honest protector of the masses agaihst the greedy capitalist, there is a typical illustration ready to hand. In the cable news published yesterday it was mehtiohed that the Austfalian Mutual Provident Society, which. holds moftgages on property in New South Wales totalling £10,000,000, would be Called upon uiider the Bill to pay £1,000,000 The A.M.P. of course, is a very wealthy concern and. would probably not have much difficulty ih finding the cash. Its cash resources on December 31 last are shown in its balance sheet at £1,67§,779. To whom does this money belong? Certainly not to a class even Mr. Lang would describe as "bloated capitalists." The society's annual report fdr the year ended December 31, 1931 conclusively answers the question. There are, of course, no shareholders, and therefoi*e no shareholders capital. The whole of the assets belong to policy-holders and the report shows that the total number of policies in existence on the date named was no less than 975,594. Of these 292,600 were held in New South Wales, 158,242 in New Zealand and the balance, with the exception of less than 11,000 held elsewhere, in the other States of the Australian Commonwealth. Both the figures and the Society's organisation are admittedly in some respects exceptional, but they are not wholly so. Figures recently published show that the share-registers of most of the great banking and commercial concerns in Australia cohtain thousands of names and that the average holding per shareholder is no more than a hundred or two, often considerably less. These figures suggest that the term capitalist, in the sense in which it is used by men like Mr. Lang, is in Australia and New Zealand largely a bcgey df their cWn inventicn, manufactured for their own purposes. They prove conclusively that confiscatory Iegislation, such as Mr. Lang's mdrtgage tax bill, must hit most heavily in proportion the very people he so lolidly proclaims his desire to protect. As Mr. Lang cannot but kndw this, his sincerity and politieal honv esty canttot b"e discussed. It is dbvious that there is nothing to I discuss. .