General Assembly.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1163, 9 December 1879, Page 2

General Assembly.

HOUSE OE REPRESENTATIVES. Friday, property tax. On the motion fo? going into committee en the Property Assessment Bill, Mr Macandrew said the measure was Pone which he looked on as being Utterly undesirable, and those on his side of the House would follow his advice. They would have. nothing to do with ifc. They Would act on the principle of " touch not, taste not, and handle not." Mr George said that he would at every stage vote against the measure, He went over the Esti. mates, to prove that sufficient reductions could have been made to meet the exigencies of the colony. Mr Brandon spoke m a similar strain. # Mr Reeves said the bill was simply a blind so as to geb fche Land Tax Bill removed from the statute book. Had the Government been honestly desirous of raising the revenue by taxation, the tax on the land ought to have been incroased. A beer tax might be imposed, and on that alone a revenue of £100,000 could have been raised. That would have been a voluntary tax, as no man need " put himself outside a pint of beer " unless he liked.

Mr Speight said ifc was quite obvious thafc the Government never intended to bring the measure into force. Thsy were told that all round the lobbies. Mefabers had been virtually' coerced into voting for tbe second reading by the doleful aspect of affairs presented by the Treasurer, and the speech delivered by the Treasurer on the second rending proved conclusively thab the measure could not possibly be brought into operation before P<uiia. ment again came into session.

Mr Swanson did not think the 'Government had hit upon a wise proposal for getting money, but still money had to be got. While he did not like fche bill, still he did nofc sco his way to oppose ifc. His object was to record his opinion that tbe measure was nofc a sham ; on the contrary, ib was to his mind a most disagreeable reality, and ifc was their bounden duty to treat ifc as such.

Mr Reader Wood said the deficit was £600,000, and the Treasurer told tliem there was no other wav of meeting the deficit than by placing it on the loan. If they went away without, making some Jvrrano-e---ment to meet that deficit this year, then the difficulty next year would be all the more serious than it was now One side of the House might differ from another as to the method employed ; but still there was no diversity of opinion that money should be raised. Everyone felfc the imposition of the tax was a serious matter, but ifc wa? a thing- they were bound to face. There was no tax at present unfairly on 'the community. In this case the tax would have been unhappily on the miniug companies. The Mosgiel woollen factory, for example, paid on the dividends on a large capital invested. There were many other concerns m exactly the same position, and ifc was their duty to lay their heads together and see if no plan could be devised of relieving the' affairs of these concerns from the operation of the tax. They had been told that the Estimates should be reduced; but he reminded them that the efforts already made m that direction had failed. If the imposition of the tax had no other effect he believed it would have this effect : it would rouse publio indignation to a point, and members would, be actually compelled to consent to a reduction of expenditure. By making the tax Jd instead of Id as prooosed., they would haye £237,000. ' Mr Seddon protested against the imposition of the tax as being most unfair to the oommuQity he represented, The debate was Interrupted by the 5,30 p.m, adjournment, '

The House resumed at 7.30 p.m. The debate on the motion to go into committee on the Property Assessment Bill was resumed by Mr Seddon. He, argued that, despite the late period of fche session, ib was necessary that the bill be taken back, and an Income Tax Bill be substituted.

Mr Moss said that, with the machinery m his hand, the Treasurer under the land tax was m a position to raise £400,000. What he estimated nnder the property tax was* .£470,000. Why not put the former into operation? The property tax could not be brought into operation until August. He desired an ex. planation on the point. Ifc appeared fco him that -the property tax, for revenue purposes, was altogether superfluous.

Sir George Grey said he felt so adverse to the measure, that he would offer resistance at every stage, As a piece of taxation, it aimed al everything that produced wealth. First of all, it aimed afc man, the highest of JNatwre's machines. Under this system that machine would be ground down. A man no. doing well would be ground down still lower. In New Zealand thej had landholders wliere the lane 1 counted nothing at all to them, and yet their cattle and produce would be taxpd. Industries, which were expected m after time to yield c profit;, would be crushed. In everj way it appeared to be a most disastrous tax. Its effect would be tc cause the property of the poorei classes to fall into hands more fortunate ih worldly circumstances They were told the oVjecfc was tc raise a few thousand pounds. That money was not wanted this year The land tax, which was thoughl highly of elsewhere was to b< abolished. Why was that? Th< 1 effect of machinery being taxec would make men hesitate to invest m machinery, and .that would be most disastrous to tho industrial classes. The land tax yields i ££ 00,000 -pgr. annum, and that was ! thrown away. An income tax woulc overtake the public creditor it Great Britain. He was taxed ir England, and why should they allow his escape when Great Britain and all foreign States recognise the principle? Theie were genilemei who drew large pensions from the • colony. They went to England, anc » were taxed m England. Why was ib that they should not contribute tc '. the funds of the place from whence they derived their pensions'? The i same with persons who derived 'arge incomes from, the colony, and resided i at home. De.aling' with such gross injustices as these, he felt as if he i were m a nightmare. Surely thi. state, of things was not real. He was told the measure was not to be pub m force. Why then alarm fche country ? There was not a day he did nob get letters infor mi eg hire that the inhabitants were determined not to remain under such a -.ysten of taxation. Let Government brios down a real measure, an income tax, m which they would tax according to means and nob grind down the poorer classes. The previous speaker had showji how it would operate upon the miner. They were told that companies formed for that purpost., developing a district, would be compellod to "give m. That was a state of things which would be most disastrous to the future of fche colony, He hoped they would pause and substitute a measure sp that the burden would be fairly and equitably distributed,. He would simply enter his protest against the measure which he conceived to be, quite unfitted fco tlie country and which would entail ruin and misery to the colony. While ifc w.ts m the favour of the colony to retrace this falso step and substitute an iucome tax he conjurod tbem to da it, A measure of thtvb kind would be sufficient to meet the emergency of the case and sustain the credit of the colony m the money market, Dr Wallis had come to the conclusion that ib was an unjust and onesided measure. The tax proposed was equivalent do the imposition m England, with its population, of £45,000,000 of money per annum. Such a, thing would neve.- be tolerated by a civilised people. Mr McLean said he agreed with the Opposition that the measure was a bitter pill to swallow. Ib was forced upon by the maladministration of the late Government. He drew a close comparison between this and the land tax, and pronounced m favor of the former. The member for Hokitika hud told them that only three men on the West Goasb contributed under the land tax. That itself went to prove that ifc was most unfair m ifcg ORQVation. The present financial difficulties he abtributed to the iate Grovernmenfc, reminding the member for Wanganui that a year ago, when delivering a statement as Colonial Treasurer, he painted the prosperous state of the affairs m glowing language and actually went fche length of attempting to reduce taxation. Mr HaU agreed thafc what could be done m the way of retrenchment should be done. Ifc was out of the question, however, thinking about striking out one sum after another indiscriminately. Jb waa a thing requiring to be handled very carefully, and by men who knew something abotit it, He could assure them that what could be done m that way, the Government wasi anxious to do it. They did nqt profess to say they were ready to do that iv tho short ticae they had been m ofißoe. After all the deductions that oould possibly be m&q m tfcialj clireQfciw, a

large deficit would still remain to be made good by taxation. Tho measnre proposed' was one which would bear fairly on all classes of the community. The statement that it would press unfairly m this direction and that direction, were ali points, true porhaps m themselves, but which might fairly be considered ia coramifctee, . Had they brought m a beer bill, the cry would have been raised about robbing the poor man of his beer. Had they proposed an insome tax, they would have been taunted with robbing the poor professional man, and hard worked civil servants. In committee the Government would be quite prepared to consider any reasonable proposal made m a friendly spirit. Ha believed that whatever they put on under this tax, and which was shewn to be necessary, would be cheerfully paid. If they found that the proposed amount could be reduced they would be very glad to do so, but the public credit would have to be maintained.

Mv Montgomery reviewed tho measure, and pointed oat its objectionable features. /

Colonel Trimble spoke m favor of the principles of the bill. What they had now to do was to perfect the machinery for enabling them to meet the public creditor. They had already asserted the principle that his claims would require to be met. Vote's they had passed and promises made day after day since Parliament met. All went towards establishing that principle, and. what the bill aimed at was to perfect the machinery necessary for giving effect to that purpose.

Mr J. B. Fisher spoke m opposition to the bill. He had listened to the arguments for and against the bill, and, to bis mind,the latter were overwhelming. The Government failed m showing ib was necessary. Such being the case, he would oppose it..

Major A tkinsott replied that he could not conceive how ib ahould be stated that they did not require the taxation proposed. No authority on the subject of finance had seriously impugned the correctness of his Estimates. No one, with the exception of a few speakers on the Government side of the House, had seriously addressed themselves to the true spirit of bhe bil. After weighing all the circumstances of the colon}-, he contended that a property tax was preferable to an income tax. The bill before the House was no sham, and the Government intended to bring ifc into operation at once. An amendment was advanced by the Opposition, for the obvious purpose of damaging the Government. They would accept reasonable proposals, but they wonlrl not, as the late Government had done, submit to an unreasonable and mere factious amendment. The proposition made by the member for the Thames about levying an income tax upon New Zealand bondholders at home was a mosb absurd one, and one which Wor.ld affecb the colonial loans m the home country. He could hardly believe that the propostion was made m earnest, i'he proposal about imposing such a tax on absentees was equally most untenable. By apply, ing themselves seriously to the bill, he believed they would succeed m producing a by no means unpopular measure.

On the question of goi?>g into Committee, the House divided. Ayes, 35 ; noes, 25.