The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1927. THE BURDEN OF TAXATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 138, 1 September 1927, Page 10

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1927. THE BURDEN OF TAXATION

MANY taxpayers will be inclined to think that the Minister of Finance, in seeking to fulfill his Budget pledge to remove several anomalies in respect of graduated income tax, based the proposed legislative adjustments on the principle of “Heads I win, tails you lose.” It was promised by the Hon. W. Downie Stewart that the prospective improvement in the graduation would be made on an equitable and scientific basis. It has to be acknowledged at Ojnce and in the best of goodwill that the shrewd Minister has kept his word. All that he promised in the Budget forecast is in the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill, which undoubtedly contains both equity and science, but these have been apportioned so cleverly in the process of adjustment that the Taxation Department, as the chief brigand in modern legalised banditry, has been assured of receiving an increased revenue from the same field of its operations. In other words, the so-called removal of anomalies in the scale of graduations will not reduce the income of the .State. Those who recognise that national revenue must, be secured from every available source may not blame the Minister or the methods adopted to meet the heavy necessities of the Treasury, but those who will have to pay just a little more income tax on an equitable and scientific basis cannot be expected to hail the adjustment with delight. They may admire the Minister, but they will not applaud him. The main effect of the proposed changes runs in the direction of increasing the impost on taxpayers whose income generally takes the form of fixed salaries. They are often herded in a rough and ready manner with wage-earners in sheltered industries. Their experience, however, is usually such as to convince them that the shelter afforded them in respect of the cost of living, which never falls below a trying altitude, is as inadequate and as incongruous as a silk parasol in an Auckland deluge. Thus, under the projected scale of graduation, taxpayers with incomes between £3OO and £1,500 a year will have their graduation of tax made fifty per cent, steeper. It may be consoling that, in mathematical terms, the adjustment is more equitable than formerly, but the consolation will become a mockery on the black day of tax payment. Of course, it is true that the people with the highest incomes will have to pay more in proportion, but then they are in a better position to pay. Moreover, in cases where the percentage reduction will operate, they will obtain greater relief. There is no argument against the Finance Minister’s claim in his recent Budget that “our income tax is one of the most liberal in the world in regard to the rate of tax and the exemptions granted for children, life insurance, and other deductions,” but comparative liberality does not appeal to the general taxpayer. What is wanted is actual liberality in the form of reduced taxation. It has to be remembered that many of the exemptions are more imaginary than real. That which the Taxation Department spares is grabbed by the Customs Department to the extent last year of over £8,000,000. There is a great deal of discontent with the Government throughout the country these days. Much of it is more shrill in expression than solid in reason, but most of it would disappear if the Reform Ministry would reduce the load of taxation which exasperates the individual and hinders commercial and industrial enterprise. The Government travels the long way round to popularity. The short cut back to it is simply along the path of reduced taxation.

COASTAL LIGHTING

THE complaint of Mr. J. A. Lee, member for Auckland East, regarding the inadequate lighting of the northern coast, will be strongly supported by shipping men who have for years been expressing dissatisfaction at the risks to which navigation, in this respect, has been subjected. At least one disastrous shipwreck might have been avoided had there been better lighting of the approach to Auckland—that of the Wiltshire, which went ashore off the Great Barrier after having missed the Cuvier Light in very thick weather. In that disaster there was. miraculously no loss of life, but the loss of property was enormous. The wreck of the Wiltshire very forcibly demonstrated the need for a light in the vicinity, but it remains unlighted, a grim menace to ships which may miss Cuvier coming from the east and be carried inshore sooner than is reckoned upon by one of those occasional westerly “sets” in the ocean current which have caused more than one shipwreck on the east coast, including that of the Manaia, to give the most recent instance.

Seamen who know the coast and its dangers, failing to secure the ear of the Marine Department by ordinary channels, have deputed Mr. Lee to express their desires, and it is really the voice of these experienced mariners that is heard when the member for Auckland East is making representations to Parliament for the better lighting of the approaches to this port. It behoves the Government to give the fullest measure of attention to these representations, and also to consider whether the Marine Department as at present constituted is not deserving of some of the accusations which have been levelled against it of disregard for the requirements of mariners. The shipping of the Port of Auckland has grown immensely, and must continue to grow, and it is imperative that nothing shall be left undone to make for the safe navigation of the coast.

MINISTERIAL SIDE-STEPPING

THE Minister of Education makes a heavy joke of the questions asked him in the House of Representatives as to the Government’s intention regarding the proposed abolition of education boards. As a heavy comedian Mr. Wright is an irritating failure. The question concerning education board abolition has been asked Mr. Wright time and again, and always his replies have been laboriously flippant, or clumsily evasive. As Mr. Parry put it, he has trifled with the House, and it is astonishing that the Government should permit one of its Ministers to act the role of a clownish verbal juggler when faced with a question of real public importance. It is time that Mr. Wright stripped the motley off his mind. The question has to be answered without shuffling or side-stepping.