WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 June 1916, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

ASSESSMENT BILL.

THE MORTGAGE TAX.

(From Our Special Correspondent). Wellington, June 28. when the Assessment Bill was introduced by Governor's message last evening members of the House speedilv discovered it was something more tlnin the mere consolidating measure they had .been led to expect, and the second reading was debated til] close upon midnight. Members on both sides of the House protested against what they considered undue haste in pushing tiie 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 it sure to be close, and may be a litle stormy. . Unless certain members of the non-party Opposition think better of their present intentions it 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 ofiieers is being kept about the lobbies in readiness foi their production at any odd hour of .the day or night.

SOMETHIXfI IN T A XAMF,. 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 Kate/' The familiar phrases conic glibly from every cirtieal 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 abolition 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 live farmer who owned the land, 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 soheme into operation during the three years he held office untrammelled by a strong liberal element in his Cabinet. But Sir Joseph Ward has come to his rescue with a proposal which will get rid of the obnoxious title without impairing the public revenue. Simply the. contributions from the lender and the borrower will be readjusted on a basis it is hoped will be satisfactory to both of them. The -"whirligig of time" and the "irony of Fate" have not brought the Minister of Finance to a renunciation of the principles he 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 he allowed, for the purpose of assessment, to deduct their contributions from their war pro fits or froni the amount of their incometax none of the speakers made quite eleai. But the Minister of Finance, in answering their appeals, took the extreme view that if he acceded to their request his revenue would be ''educed by the total amount of the subscriptions, some two millions sterling, ami that instead of taking two millions from war profits he would have to take four millions. lint lie did not base Jiis em phatic refusal to listen to the proposal upon this fantastic deduction. He thonght it would be an insult to the gen-erous-hearted people who had contributed to the various funds out of pure loyalty and patriotism to 'hand back the whole or part of their contributions on the assumption that they had repented of their gifts. That, at any- rate, was how he would feel in regard to the help he had been privileged to give. He might have added that the larger part of the total contributions had been received anonymously from people of small means to whom no restitution could be made, though their sacrifice probably has been greater than that of the donor of thousands. !

FIVE YEAR PARLIAMENTS. The number for Ashburton, whose recent rather ostenatious displays of independence need not indicate the withdrawal of the Ministerial confidence he lias enjoyed so long in his capacity of Junior Reform Whip, is n'sking the Prime Minister if he will introduce legislation during the present session to give the country quinquennial instead of tricnnia Parliaments. These are 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 many mure 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- - raflur towards the reduction of the term o; Parliament than for its oxtni'ini—and Mr. Massey is not so blind to the signs of the time that he can have missed the marked growth of democratic tlmrght throughout the country since last general election. The very restraints placed upon party controversy by the war—necessary as they were and useful as they have proved—have helped to revive 'the old restless desire for reform in the country's system of representation, and when 'ibis ifosire finds adequate expression it will not be along the lines suggested by Mr. Nosworthy. The electors may be looking back while waiting.for the passing of the national crisis, but they have no intention of moving that way.

PRICE OF BREAD. , Mr. Vimtch, tlie member for Wanganui, who wastes none of the time of the House over trivialities, is urging the Government to take some practical steps to lessen the cost of living to the workers. Tie is not bothering himself over the prices charged for luxuries, and he does not eypeet the Minister of Industries and Commerce to regulate the cost of imported articles inevitably affected by the war. but lie wishes Mr. Massey.to do what can be done to give the people cheaper bread and meat, and other necessaries of life. According to information already before the Board of Trade, ami presumably communicated by the Hoard to the Prime Minister, this can be done without inflicting hardship upon ■iiiyone and without disturbing the cconomie foundations of the Dominion. There are figures in abundance gathered from ' reliable sources to show that bread even iat the present price of flour, which j leaves the millers with a profit which | well might come under review, could be sold at 3&d the 21b loaf and still give