STOCK VALLES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21247, 18 October 1940, Page 10

STOCK VALLES

UNION’S COMPLAINT TEST CASE INTENDED TAX ON EXTRA PROFIT Criticism of the increases in stock ! . values required by the Commissioner of Taxes for purposes of social and national security taxation is ex- j pressed by the Auckland Executive of the Farmers’ Union in a report in which it states its intention of the position at law. A par- | ! ticular case is to be selected and the commissioner will be invited to take action to recover the additional j amount of tax claimed. ; The executive’s report states that when unemployment taxation was first introduced many farmers, following official instructions, entered their stock at nominal valuations and have kept them at the same level ever since. From the current year onward, however, farmers whose valuations have been low are required to raise them to a point ap- j proximating to market values. ; The report states that this will J ; involve, in many cases, payment of additional taxation to cover the increased valuations. The executive i . had already taken strong exception j ■ to the levying of taxation on arbit- j j rary book values that do not in any sense come within the definition of i income. Excess Profits Tax I Another matter which has been j ' fully discussed by the union execu- i j tive is the excess profits taxation. At j i a meeting this week it was pointed out that it was not possible for j farmers working on fixed prices to; profiteer as a result of war condi- j lions. It was stated the proposed method of collecting taxation would react : very unfairly against those farmers who, after spending years of effort | with small reward in breaking-in j farms, had only recently brought ; their properties to the point of full j | development and begun to receive ; substantial returns. Their present income, in such cases, 1 represented the reward not only for work concurrently done, but also for the lean years during which they had worked hard and received little. It was decided to supply to the Dominion executive of the union detailed information and comment concerning the unfair incidence of the >tax and to ask the executive to place this before the Government. There was nothing to do but to say good-bye, and to go back to her father and tell him exactly how things had turned out. Neither would she allow her father to talk her into trying again—Carrie was

j very decided on that point. “We've lost,” she told her father when she reached home. "And I’m not going to make myself look cheap, Dad! As Harry was talking, I looked straight into his eyes—and I saw something.” "Well, what did you see?” her father asked irritably. “I .saw his soul!” Carrie replied. “It was no longer the country boy who was talking to me; it was a man, and one who had profited by experience. We tried very much to get him right down into the mud and mire—oh, yes, we did, father. You know we did. He might have gone to prison! Well, he didn’t utter a Single reproach about that, or about the letter I sent him. It would have been better for your plans if he had. He just smiled, and said that it didn’t matter—that everything had turned out for the best. And he spoke from his heart! I’ve no further power over him. And if I were you, I should put Harry Preston entirely out of your mind—as I am going to do. If not —if you seek him out again—you might find yourself in queer street. He’s got friends behind him now—powerful friends—and it might be you who went to prison!”

Her words seemed to carry some conviction, for her father shrugged his shoulders. “We’d better go abroad again,” he told her. “And you’ll have to cut I down expenses, Carrie. Your one hope is a rich marriage.” Her one hope! To barter her youth and beauty for the sake of money! And even that, as it happened, did not transpire, for when, a few months later, Carrie Lucas did marry, it was u qui‘e a pc or Colonial, who was going back to a lonely farm, where he would expect his wife to work for her keep; to help him over the rough times, if she wanted to participate in the smooth. (To be continued daily)