SALES TAX PROPOSED

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1922, Page 7

SALES TAX PROPOSED

OPERATION IN CANADA. A suggestion that the New Zealand Government /should consider the adoption of a sales tax was made in a letter received recently by Mr. T. de Schryver from Dr. J. O. Miller, Toronto, who was in the Dominion last year. The communication was yesterday passed on to the council of the Chamber of Commerce for consideration. The writer said the tax had proved to be both popular and efficient in Canada. He mentioned also that Sir Edmund Walker, of the Bank of Commerce, had just advocated a special one per cent, tax on sales of commodities, to be applied in liquidation of Canada’s war debt. There had been some agitation in England also in favor of giving this method a trial. The writer concluded: “Now is the time to try it, when the people are, accustomed to high prices for all commodities.” (Laughter.) Mr. de Schryvet, in a covering letter, said he wondered whether the imposition of such a tax would be acceptable to the New Zealand public. It would bring in a considerable sum. He understood that in Canada the tax was demanded only on certain classified commodities, foodstuffs, medicines, and other lines of actual necessities not being affected by it.

It was decided to approach the Canadian Government for full information on the subject.