NEXT YEAR’S FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1921, Page 4

NEXT YEAR’S FINANCE.

SOME DIFFICULTIES AHEAD. STATEMENT BY THE PREMIER. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) The Prime Minister made some interesting references to the land tax and the income tax* when he was moving the second reading s of the Public Works Loan Bill in the House of Representatives. He said that the land tax was coming along in a very satisfactory manner and he believed that within three or four weeks practically all oi it would have been collected.

Mr. J. V. Brown (Napier): Some ni them have had to sell their land to pay their tax.

Mr. Massey: I know that threequarters of the farmers have this ycai had to pay their land tax out of capital. There is no getting away from that. The wool sales to-day have been very ertcouraging and I am inclined tc think that wool is gradually rising in value. If coarse wool gets back to the price at which it stood in 1914, when the war broke out, we shall be able to get along pretty satisfactorily, although there is not very much profit in that. I am certain that this year three-quar-ters of the farmers have to pay their land tax out of revenue. That is a levy on capital, and you cannot go on doing that for long. If w’e had to repeat that levy two or .three years in succession we should have a very serious state of things. Mr. Holland (Buller): Have they paid in cash?

Mr. Massey: Nearly all of them. A very large proportion of the tax was paid in cash. Turning to the income tax, the Prime Minister said that the position was Dot qiute so bad as in the case of the land tax. The business men in many cases were able to pass on the tax to the people with whom they did business. He hoped to l?e able to collect the income tax when the time came. He did not expect any serious difficulty this year. But the Government had to look forward to difficulties in the next year and to make preparations accordingly. He wanted people to understand, when they saw the Government retrenching in all directions and endeavoring to increase the revenue, that the preparations were not so much for this year as for next year. It was necessary to cut down expenditure in order to be prepared for the difficulties that might come next year. Mr. Holland: What is wrong with cutting down the interest on some of the loans?

Mr. Massey: I cannot propose anything in the nature of repudiation. We have to pay what we promised. We can pay our way. I have not the slightest anxiety about the country as a whole. It is so good that it will get over its difficulties, and the people are so energetic and industrious that they will not take long in doing it.