WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 152, 30 June 1916, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

ASSESSMENT BILL. THE MORTGAGE TAX. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, June 2S. When the Assessment Bill was introduced by Governor’s message last evening members of the House speedily discovered it was something more than the mere consolidating measure tiny had been led to expect, and the second reading was debated till close on midnight. , Members on both sides of the ■House, protested against what they considered undue haste in pushing the Bill through, and it required all Sir Joseph Ward’s tact and a little more than his usual) firmness to get his own way in this respect. It is a bulky measure of 169 clauses, many of them new and highly technical, and its progress through committee is sure to be slow, and may be a little stormy. Unless.certain members of the non-party Opposition think better of their present intentions they will delay the further progress of the Finance Bill till the beginning of next week. In the meantime the Estimates are being taken as opportunity offers, and a small army of departmental officers is being kept about the lobbies in readiness for tht'r production at any odd hour of the day or night.'

SOMETHING IN A NAME. The provision in the Assessment Bill for the abolition of the much-discussed mortgage tax naturally has provoked a good deal of more or less flippant talk about the “whirligig of time'” and the “irony of fate. ’’ The familiar phrases come glibly from every critical tongue that would gibe at the Minister of Finance. But as a matter of plain fact the abolition of the mortgage tax proposed by Sir Joseph Ward is a very different thing from the aboMtion urged by Mr. Massey when he was making his way to the position he has since achieved. Mr. Massey would have relieved from taxation not only the’ capitalist who lent his money to the farmer, but also the farmer who owned the laud, and the result would have been a. large and ever increasing loss of revenue to the State. He made no attempt, for obvious reasons, to put his crude scheme into operation during the three years he held office untrammelled by a strong Libera] element in his Cabinet. But Sir Joseph Ward lias come* to his rescue with a proposal which will get rid of the obnoxious without impairing the public revenue. Simply, the contributions from the lendei? and the borrower will be rt adjusted a, basis that it is hoped will be satisfactory -to both of them. The “whirligig, of time ’ ’ ami thje “irony of Fate have not brought the Minister of Finance to a ‘renunciation of the principles lie was defending a few years ago. PATRIOTISM AND TAXATION. During the debate in the House last night several members urged that subscribers to patriotic funds, past, present and future, should be relieved from taxation on their contributions. Just whether the subscribers should be allowed, for the purpose of assessment, to deduct their contributions from their war profits or from the amount of their income-tax none of the speakers made quite clear. But the Minister of Finance, in answering their appcalfe, took the extreme view that if he acceded to their request his revenue would be reduced by the total amount of the subscriptions, some two millions sterling, and that instead of taking two millions from war profits he would have to take tour millions. But he did not base his emphatic refusal to listen to the proposal upon this fantastic deduction. Ho thought it would be an insult to the generous-hearted people who had contributed to the various funds put of pure loyalty and patriotism to hand back the whole or part of their contributions on the asumption that they had repented of their gifts. This, at | any rate, was how he would feel in re- j gard to the help ho had been privileged j to give. He might have added that the j larger part of the total contributions } had been received anonymously from | people of small nutans, to whom no j restitution could bo made, though | their sacrifice probably has been great- j er than that of the donor of thousands, i

FIVE YEAR PARLIAMENTS. The member for Ashburton, whose recent rather ostentatious displays of: independence need not indicate the withdrawal of Hie Ministerial confidence he has enjoyed so long in his capacity of junior Reform whip, is asking the Prime Minister if he will introduce legislation during the present session to give the country quinquennial instead of triennial Parliaments. There arc several members on Mr. Nosworthy's own side of the House who have openly expressed their approval of a change of this kind, and probably main' more on both sides who would muster up courage to support it if it were proposed by the National Cabinet; but Mr. Massey is scarcely likely to introduce such a measure during the present session. The tendency of democratic thought is all in the other direction —rather towards the reduction of the term of Parliament than for its extension —and Mr. Massey is not so blind to the signs of the times that

he can have missed the marked growth; of democratic thought throughout the country since last general election. Th©] very restraints placed upon party con-i troversy by the war —necessary as thej" were and usefi.Jinas they have proved—, have helped the o!d restless desire for reform in the eountrv’sj system of representation, wWe\ this desire finds adequate expression it will not be along the lines suggested by Mr. Nosworthy. The electors may bo looking back while waiting for the passing of the national crisis, but they have no intention of moving that way. PRICE OF BREAD. Mr. Veireh., the member for Wanganui, who wastes none of the time of the House over trivialities, is urging the Government to take some x>ractical steps to lessen the cost of living to the workers. He is not bothering himself over the prices charged for luxuries, and he does not expect the Minister of Industries and Commerce to regulate the cost of imported articles inevitably affected by the war, but he wishes Mr. Massey to do what he can to give the people cheaper bread and meat and other necessaries of life. According to information already before the Board of Trade, and presumably communicated by the Board to the Prime Minister, this can be done wfijiout in-* flicting hardship upon anyone t{nd without disturbing the economic foundation of the Dominion. There are figures in abundance gathered from reliable sources to show that bread, even at the present price of flour, which leaves the millers with .a profit ■ which well might come under review, could be soldi at 31 d the 21b loaf and still give the bakers a handsome return. Members of the House arc being bombarded with enquiries on this subject from their constituents, and somt- of them are becoming extremely dissatisfied with the Government’s failure to provide them with replies.