FORCEFUL BUDGET SPEECH.
BY THE MEM'BER FOB KOMoNT. (By Wire—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last >iight. Mr. C. A. Wilkinson (Egmont) made n forceful speech on the Budget 'n the House to-night. Tie said one of Hie bigRest and most alarming features of the Uudget was tile rapid increase in the public debt of the. Dominion Other features were the big surplus and the heavy taxation on small and moderate sized farms. Tie had risen chilly to speak about the heavy taxation on land, especially as a Meeting the small holders. The graduated tax iia<l been abolished >n ell'ect, and he.thought the new system a better one. The worst feature of the land taxing pvoposais was that no exemption was allowed for mortgages, and this would opc.ute very hardly against the small farmer. It was true a farmer could deduct his mortgage interest for the purpose of 'determining his income for taxation purposes, but this would hot give any relief to the fanner who would not be called upon to Day income tax. Tie agreed that ' wealth should pay the greater part of the cost of the war, but in this respect the taxation was going to press heavily on a class of people not able to bear the burden. The land tax had been doubled, but it was not fair in its incidence, as it had been made heavier proportionately for the small holdings. He hoped the Finance Minister would see his way to alter the scheme of land taxation, so as lo give relief to the small farmer and take more from the man with the big area. . This would be a sound proceeding in view of the fact that the country needed small farmers.
Land had alro to liear heavy burdens for local taxes, amounting in all to from t\' : , |.o i [ \ millions ;i year. Tie would urge also that a fanner should lie allowed to deduct the amount, of land tax an an expense in returning his income for taxation. He feared that the general effect of the heavy taxation would be to drive people off the land, accelerating the already constant drift towards the cities, where the life was taster than in the country. This .'lir was not going to be for the good of tht, country. It was proposed not to reenact the. excess profits tax', and no doubt thU decision would give satisfaction to the country, but two i.eparntc income taxes were to be levied—an or dinar)' tax of from (id to :>s in the £, with perfectly fair exemptions, and the war tax ranging from !)d to -Ss (id in the .1' without exemptions. He would like to see a straight-out scheme made of one tax to brir.g in the same amount of money. The (Jovernment had been blamed for not conscripting orconfiscat-i ing capital. He considered that all those schemes were foolish. Any very severe system of taxation- would, in the end, destroy itself by destroying the ineon-. five to production and industry. The object of the .State should be not to cripple industry, and to tax the spending of money rather than the earning of it. Everything should be done to encourage people to go on producing. He did not approve of the rule by which a farmer was not allowed in assessing his income to deduct some equivalent of wages for his family. He would like to see some such allowance as this made. He would also like to see a heav'er rat" of tax imposed upon bachelors, with more exemption to men with families.
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Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1917, Page 5
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593FORCEFUL BUDGET SPEECH. Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1917, Page 5
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