WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3576, 11 September 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

NEW TAXATION. CONFLICTING VIEWS. (Special Correspondent.) i WELLINGTON, Sept. 10. While the members of the Liberal and Labour parties are declaiming against Mr Massey’s failure in his Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill to place a fair share of the country’s burdens upon big estates and big incomes, his political friends are complaining that the Prime Minister has conceded far too much t« thepersistent demand of the “socialistic” element in the community. “It is.” the “Dominion’'’ says, “a measure very severe in its demands on persons of substantial income and large holders of land. It not only perpetuates, but it aggravates the injustice done to shareholders of joint stock companies. It seems likely in some cases to prove little short of confiscation of the whole income. The outstanding feature of the Bill is its direct appeal to popularity.” These isolated paragraphs do no injustice to the general • tenor of the Reform organ’s denunciation of the party leader’s proposals. A BUSINESS MAN’S VIEW. Mr Harold Beauchamp, who, as. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of New Zealand, finds it. desirable to keep his eye upon the political drift of the country, as well as upon its financial and commercial affairs, speaks with even a greatersense of responsibility than does the average newspaper. He is restrained in his expressions of opinion, but he evidently does not like Mr Massey’s proposals. Ho confesses he was unpleasantly surprised by the manner in which the Minister of Finance proposed to obtain Ms additional revenue. The Minister did not appear tobe entirely conversant with the effect his previous taxation was having The mercantile community was being laden with charges it could not pass on to the public and no one could’ foresee how grave the results might be. Mr Beauchamp still thinks the import and export tax he proposed at the beginning of the war would havebrought about a much more equitable distribution of the country’s burdens • than has any scheme that Has beert; adopted. , . . THE LICENSING POLL, ‘‘ t , Last night the Licensing, Amend--ment Bill sent down from, the - Legislative Council produced a long discussion on licensing matters in general. The Bill itself is intended merely to prevent an evasion of the spirit of; the existing law by making it impossible to transfer a license beyond the limits prescribed by the Act of 1908, but the motion-for the second reading opened up the whole subject of liquor for debate. The I most notable contribution to the dis- , cussion came from the Prime Minister, who, while supporting the Bill . before the House, said it was unlikely ‘there would be any important amendi ments to the Licensing Act prio- > 1 the next licensing poll, which probj ably would take place at the time of j tile next general election. If the I liquor trade survived the next poll, however, it would be the duty of Parliament to deal with it as it had not been dealt -with for the last twentyyears. Mr Massey’s statement was received with approval by the Prohibition element in the House and later on it may attempt to get the form of the ballot paper amended. TOWN AND COUNTRY. Taranaki and its small, farmers arefinding a very ready champion in the House of Representatives in Mr Robert Master's, the new member for Stratford. Mr Masters, though a clear and logical speaker, wastes no time in superfluous talk and is not parochial in his views. But when the •small farmer is attacked from the Labour benches or from any other quarter Mr Masters is all attention and hits back without delay. O n Wednesday night while stone-walling the scheme for apprenticing English lads to farmers the Labour membershad a lot to say about “child slavery” in the milking districts and when he got his opportunity MiMasters countered very effectively. He showed from official reports tE the children of Taranaki, instead of being stunted in body and intellect as had been alleged, were among the most robust and intelligent in the Dominion and he thought an inquiry among any considerable community of small farmers would reveal similar conditions. II was the big to' v m. he insisted, that required earnest attention in this respect. »