MORTGAGE TAX.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 June 1916, Page 4

MORTGAGE TAX.

FINANpE MINISTER CHANGES BIS MIND.

AN ANIMATED DEBATE.

j (From Our Own Correspondent.)' 1 wi..„ u, rr Wcl,i "K to ". wist Night, When the House went into committw Tax .Bill, the Minister of Finance an- ■ nonnced that difficulties had arisen in ' - connection with the promise.! repeal ol ' the Mortgage Tax, and he asked mem- • • tiers to postpone consideration of some ■ " twenty clauses of the measure, which ■ would have to bo redrafted. Sir Joseph Wad did not explain the ' :i precise nature of the difficulties but ,; from Ins subsequent remarks it appeared that the repeal of the tax would result in a loss of £344,000 in revenue, while ■'■ the substituted income tax would nro. " (luce only £170,000, leaviAg a net losi ' of £174,000. h m ■ •

The Minister said personally he hid always been favorable to the repeal of . the tax, which probably increased tlio ■ rate of interest to farmers by half per tont ;i b^, t i 1 L c „ 0, . mtr J' cm,M no 't affnrd to ; mnit £174,000 in taxation in war time Of course it would he possible to make up the loss by other taxation, and he- '« was conferring with the officers of the ') Taxation Department on this point, but Ins present impression was that the repeal of the tax should be, postponed till a more opportune season. The debate which followed the Mini*. ter's announcement in ten minute speeches was one of the most animated of the session.

Mr. 0. V. lVaree (Patea) would not behove Sir Joseph Ward's figures were correct, and, in any case, he would abol. 1811 the mortgage tax. Mr. C. A. Wilkinson (Egmont) on the other hand, would retain it lest a worse evil should befall the formers.

Between these two views, th* dlscllß.' sion drifted to and fro through the afternoon sitting and far into the night. Features of the evening sitting were tabloid lectures on political economy by Mr. Pearce and Mr. Hindmarsh. in which the Labor leader got very much the beat of the argument. Mr. Pearcc's contention was that income tax on mortgage* could not be passed on to a mortgagor, but Mr. Hindmarsh laughed, and the House laughed with him, while he showed it could be as easily passed on as jould a duty on tea or sugar. "Well, veil," sighed the member for Welling, ton South at the end of one of Mr. Pcarce's sonorous periods. "1,-can give the hon. member the facts, but I can't give him the understanding!" The end of the whole business waa that the committee rose with the Arm conviction that the mortgage tax would not be. repealed this session, nor even revised in its incidence, and that a long time will elapse before the Minister's promise in the Budget is revived.