TAXATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9591, 10 September 1909, Page 7

TAXATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Interviewed by a ''New Zealand Times" representative, the Hon. Dr. Findlay, stated, in amplification of his recent speeches, that the capital value of land alone in the Domin • ion increased beiween 18 ( Jl and 1909 by £148,312,267, and this value was 30 per cent, under the actual sales, says a Press Association telegram, The increase in the gross public debt in the past 18 years was £32,108,184, or £l4 per head of the European population. At the same time, the increase in public and private wealth was' £llß | per head, tne increase in the value |of railways and equipment was £13,844,053 and the increased investments supplied to Advances to Settles, Land for Settlements, State Coal mines, Loans to Local Bodies, etc., £22,949,970, making a total of £36,794,028, all directly reproductive and carrying more than the interest paid, so that the whole of the increased public debt since 1891 is earning more than the additional interest paid. During the past 18 years the European population increased by 326,584, or equal to 51 per cent. The total private wealth'alone in the Dominion is estimated at the huge sum of £507,969,333, and the public and private wealth, at a moderate estimate, is computed at £600,000,000. The increase in the annual incomes returned for taxation in 15 years is over £10,000,000 for every £1,000,000 of miblic expenditure during the past 18 years. The wealth largely resulting therefrom has increased more than £8,000,000. This would, in commercial circles, be considered sound business. The population has not increased as rapidly as the wealth and incomes. While taxation, taken as a total collection, has increased, wealth and incomes have increased at a very much greater rate, thus providing a means of easy payment of any taxation which, levied at the old rate, has, owing to the increased wealth, increased in amount. The total interest paid on the public debt in 1891 waa £1,660,237, equal to £2 13s 6d per head of the population European, and the percentage of revenue absorbed by the public debt charged was 39.45 per cent. In 1908, the total intefcst paid on the public debt was £2,187,419, equal to £2 7s 3J per head ot the European population, and the percentage of revenue absorbed by the public debt charged was 21.45 per cent., a reduction in the rate of interest paid per head of the population of fis 3d, equal to 11 per cent., and a reduction of the percentage of revenue absorbed by the public debt charged of 15.30 percent. "Let these facts and figures," added Dr Findlay, "answer the repeated misstatements that this country is groaning under a crushing burden of public debt. Surely the increase of debt which, not only pays itself, but has helped to enrich thosands of our people, is not a national disaster. Surely people to enriched can scarcely complain that the growth of their wealth calls at the old rate of levy for a little larger payment in the shape of direct taxation. Most of the 890,352 people in New Zealand who have not sufficient land or income to call for taxation wish, I doubt not that they had the same cause of complaint."