PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 21 September 1907, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

FRIDAY, BEPTJBIBEU 20. LEGISLATIVE COUIMJIL. By Telegraph —l'cr Press Association. Wellington, Lust Night. The Council mot at 2.30. 11115 TARIFF BILL. The discussion on the second reniding of the TttTilV Bill was ix-sumed. The Hon. George, who had previously moved the adjournment of the debate, st.iited that as he understood the Government wished to get through the Bill that day, he would waive his right to speak. The Attorney-General said he had iio desire to hourke that discussion in any

way. Tho Hon. T. Kelly thought the Government bad been wisely modest in its proposal for protective duties, and lie approved the remissions on the necessaries of life, especially on sugar, which would cheapen jams and other commodities in which sugar was largely used. • Tho Hon. Loughnan thought it a pity sweated goods could not he prohibited altogether. The Hon. J. G. Smith held that all possible encouragement should 'be given to our manufacturers, and he upheld the preferential tarili, holding tlv.it we had i right to give Briii.-h manufacturers preference over foreign countries. Jn regard to the interpretation of the tariff, there ought to be, provision for appeal to the Minister of Customs. He believed the attitude of the Government in framing the tariff had been absolutely fair to all sections of the community. The Hon. Luke did not think the Go vernment had shown that magnanimous spirit of assistance to manufacturers that they ought to hive shown, and which this country had a right to expect. With nil their fighting over the tariff, the Government had not been able to get more than 5 per cent duty on machinery. He urged that iron and other industries of the colony should rceeive the fullest encouragement. He strenuously advocated utilisation of the water power of the country for manufacturing and other purposes, anrl said if tlfe Government could not do so they should let others take the matter in hand. There was a great future for electrical engineering in this country. The Hon. Ban- believed the general community would largely benefit b'y remissions of duty. Ho thought, howover, that the 'duty should have been relieved upon holloware, seeing that ft would be years before the colony could supply tho demand. He regretted the neglect in the tariff of the saddlery and harness trade, which liad for some years been going back. He also objected' to the duty on raw cotton. The Hon. Sinclair contended that the duty on raw cotton would help to preserve the reputation of our woollen industry. Tho Hon. Scotland said the tariff had been compiled in a most masterly wiy, and was most lucid. Tho Attorney-General having replied in very few words, the second reading was carried. The standing orders were suspended, and the Bill put through its final stages and passed. The Council adjourned at 4.50..

HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES. . The House met at 2.50. / Tho Methylated Spirits Bill was reported, amendments mnje in commiftee, and agreed to. The Bill was read a third time anil passed. LAND AND INCOME ASSESSMENT. Xlie House went into committee on Hit; Land and Income Assessment Bill. AV the in.torpreta.tioß of the clause, iiir .Uasscy objected to a tax being paid on mortgages by the borrower, whilst tho lender at the same time paid a tax on interest derived from the same mortgaffe - i a i H i The Premier stated the graduated taxt was not paid twice over. No reduction was made to the borrower on his mortgage, but the lender did not pay graduated land tax on the mortgage. He added that this clause did not alter the existing law. Mr James Allen urged that the mort: gage tax should be done way with altogether. He added: ''Make it income tax if you like." By wiping out the mortgage tax, it would cheapen money. The Premier said tho Bill was designed to assist in the cutting up of large estates, and the tax proposed was with' that object. No one wanted to see an individual suffer. All he wanted to see was that large estates were cut »1>- I ,■•'■■■ i

Mr Fisher urged that a ' law should he passed that when a landowner died, his property, if over £40,000 unimproved value, should he parcelled out. If this were done, then in 25 years' time there would bo no estates in excess of this value.

The clause was agreed to without amendment, and the House adjourned

The House resumed at 7-30. Clause 3, which provides that sections 44 and 45 of the principal Act section 5 of the Land and Income Ad Amendment Act, 1903, and the schedule to the last-mentioned Aet be repealed, was agreed to without amendment. Clause 4, which provides that every person who owns land the unimproved value of which is £SOOO or more, snail P»y graduated land tax commencing with the year ending 31st MarelflOOS was agreed to without amendment. At elauso fi, suij-Section 3, for evcrv additional thousand pounds of the said value ovctr the nfoiount' of £40,000 the percentage shall be increased one-fifth of i selling, and the percentage to increased shill he charged on the total unimproved value of the land in respect of which the said is assessed, Mr \\ ilforjl moved an amendment to omit the clause, with a view to inserting the higher value there shall be a progressive increase of perecntage, the rate foi every value boin» one-fifth of a shilling more than that for a value of one thousand pounds less." Ho urged that under the clause proposed in the Hill, no provision was made as to what tax should be imposed on amounts between thousands ■ ovetr £40,009.

r The amendment was negatived by <sfi > to 6. Mr Laurcnsen said he desired to ' move that progress be reported for eor- , tain reasons. As a private member, ; it was impossible for him to move Wat i tho exemption be reduced, but By reporting progress it would enable the i Government to ibring down Try Govern ■ or's (message, pronosals to reduce tlie ■ exemption from 40,000 to 20,000. He j bad good reason for the course he' proposed to adopt. There were 370 es- ; til tea between 20,000 and 40,0"00. and if the exemption were reduced, the in- '. creased revenue thereby derived would be £6272, whilst it would also increase, the revenue from estates over £540,000. His estimation of the extra revenue was that it would probably be* from £IO,OOO to £12,000, "Cut he particularly desired to emphasise that a man owning £25,000 of land held an ample quantity, and the Government should do till possible to discourage large holdings. The Premier said he gave Mr Laurenson every credit for a desire to move a reduction of progressive taxation Trom £40,000 to £25,000, but thought Mr Laurenson had said the increased taxation would be some £SOOO more. He (tho Premier) assuicdjuembers that the increase would not exceed £4OOO. He reiterated his remarks (made on Hie second reading of the Bill, that it was not ■desirable to reduce the amount below £40,000. Ho pointed out that there were properties of less than 400 acres with an unimproved value of £25,000, rtn\\ others with 500 acres of an unimproved value of £30,000, and for the reasons he had given before he was not prepared to. accept the proposal to reduce the item. He reminded members (lint the increased taxation from graduated lanfl tax would bo £17.000 in excess of the highest amount received during 1004, 1005 and 1900. Incidentally, he instanced the ease of a farm of 043 acres, the, unimproved value of which was £71,000. If the proposal were carried, it Would place great hardship on many landowners of property j' valued ftt £25,000, and would, flood t h

market, 110 added that it would injure the colony if the proposal wero carried. Mr ltutherford, opposing the motion to report progress, said lint large 09- ' tatcs were 'materially decreasing under existing taxation, and he urged there was no necessity to reduce the amount of exemption below £40,000. Mr Fisher agreed iwth Mr Lnuvenson, and proposed to vote for the amendment because he knew it would bo defeated, but if he bolicved that the currying of the amendment would lead to confiscation, he would not, support it. He would like to see a Bill designed to prevent large estates being brought into existence, but. he did not want to come down on a private individual and say that |by the imposition of this tax they were going to confiscate his excess of land. Mr Wilford said the revenue derived from Customs last year was £2,041,000, and from land tax £447,000. The total value of the unimproved freehold land of the colony was £100,232,3*7, and that, he urged, was sufficient justi- . Mention for Mr Laurcnstyi'B Mnendment. He was sorry that the lion, member did not propose to make the exemption £20,000 instead of £25,000. Mr Ell contended there were, many estates held by one man which would provide livings for six or seven families, and others of enormous values within easy distance of towns which would be of great value for market gardening purposes. He would support the amendment. He added that the time would come when they would '. have to reduce the exemption far lower ' than £25,000. The Premier said there were 128,000 landowners in the colony, and 20,008 odid paid land tax. The values of toitc- \ able land was £77,000,000 last year,

and the mortgages amounted to £49,000,000. If comparisons were to Ujp introduced between the Customs revenue and the land tax, they would lutve / to go a little further, and ssc how} mucji the people owning the land paid in ! Customs revenue. Mr Laurenson, replying to the Pre-

micr, said that if the exemption were reduced to £25,000, the increased revenue, he found, would he £16,027, not £5272, as he had stated previously. A motion to report progress was neg.atived liy 49 to 12. Mr Ell said there were two estates! in Wellington of the value of £202,288, nnd eleven estates valued at £578,140. There were two sections, one 170 ft by 137 feet, halved. £18.725, and one 05 feet hy 03 feet, halved, £16,025. These, he said, represented unearned increment, and these were cases for a progressive land tax. Imt because they were business sites, they were exempt. In Christchurch, an acre of land was valued at £62.085, and another section of 1% acres valued at £110,435. In the latter ease, in the e«ly days a quarter icre sold for £24. Four years ago, this was valued at £47,500. These' were business sites which had befeni created by the cora(mumty, and sty-mid) contribute more towards the taxation of the country. The Premier sn.id the Bill was for the purpose of cutting up estates, and could not apply to business sections, as they coul d not be cut up for the purpose of the Bill, which was intended to cut up land for settlement purposes. Mr Hemes said if a person held 10V acres in the city of Wellington, he would draw rents from the whole portion of the estate, and yet would not pay graduated tax under the Bill. He urged that these large city estates should be cut up for the purpose of workers' homes, etc. The Bill woulU encourage men to invest money in city property and forsake the country. Hy argued that if a man held city property hq should be exempted! in so far as hfo own premises were concerned, but not in regard to his tenants.

Mr Gray pointed out that where landowners paid £2 10s a year in taxes, a man owning land in towns would probably pay £250 in {axes. Mr Massey said the argument of tho city representatives ' was ttf the effect that they should tax land to prevent monopoly in the country, hut they should allow monopoly-in the towns to go untaxed. JT e , Ir , there should be no differentiation between land in the cities and lanfl in the country. This was an extreme tax which was intended to apply to the country, but not to the town., and he was altogether opposed to differentia■on He contended that in proportion to the value derived, the local taxes in the country were in excess of local taxes in the towns. At clause 7, "Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, each of the said percentages determined as aforesaid, shall be increased bv 25 per cent thereof in the ease of "all la nd j other than business premises as herein defined," Mr Ell moved to strike e ufa," the words after 'land." V effect of the amendment would be increased taxation. The chairman ruled the amendment out of order. p-,,-^^