EXCESS WAR PROFITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 156, 1 July 1916, Page 17

EXCESS WAR PROFITS.

TAX .MAT YIEIiD £€0,000,000. . ' As a revenue producer the excess profits uty is going to be one of the biggest Mugs in the comin-g* financial year, ears Iβ London "Daily Chronicle." Iα the ret of a series of articles we hare been nbUshins daring the past few weeis we. ointed-out that If the percentage payable o the Government were increased from. 0 to 60 or TO per cent, we eaeilj; cc 50 or 60 millions so into the Treasury. ."Siat is not an extravagant view, ami Jαleed, having regard to the remarkable, resale published recently, some of the nost strUdnj of whicli we.have tabulated, Eany think that it is an under rather than, in oTer estimate. Take the shipping industry alone. The •esnlts have been absolutely phenomenal. Only a. day or two ago ti.e great Canard. Company published profits nearly £400,000 ' n excess of the pre-war standard. Other striking figures were thoee of the.Gulf line, lith excess profits of £124,000,. .Lamport" Ed Holt with over £200,000,. the China-., tfntnal with £2*2,000, and so on, while,, jicreases of over £100,000 have been thenile rather ithan the exception. •Hany of on- maet Important collieries belong to priTate owners, wiile others are owned by iron and steel undertakings, but. the Powell Dnffryn, Untted National lieries, and the United Collieries res Tilts - stand ont .pronrineirtly. The . first two - smrck their profits after allowing .foe-the.. duty, and yet the excess figures, work out at £032j350 and respectively, while the United Collieries earned iip■vrarfis of £103,000 more than the pre-war-standard. We cave already dealt fully with the prosperity cf the boot and shoe and tobacco besinesses. . In the formes - gTon-p the most remarkable result is that of Freeman, Hardy and Wllfis, with excess profit of £72,300; while in the latter 12ie figures of the Imperial Tobacco Company 6trike the eye, wit3i excess 'profits of over half a million. In the -wholesale goods aad motor? sections we might select sereral examples, bat two will suißce. The wonderful ■Coar-: taaids' report created quite a sensation, a few weeks ago, excess profits working ont at about £350,000, while the Sun Seam Motor Company's profit of £241,300, compared wtth a pre-war standard of £77,000, reflects the success which has anendect the operations of most of the motor companies when working under war condir tions. * , " Among important misceUaneons con--cerns whose profit showings liave attracted special attention are the British Oil an* Cake MlHs with excess profits of £364,000, the "Shell" Transport with. £305,000, the.. .Guinness Company with £237.000, theT Union Cold Storage with £115,000, and Lever Brothers with £352,000 In some cases the amount payable to the 'Government will be eveir larger thaa a-ppea-rs on the surface, for undiscovered allowances to depreciation and sp«iaK funds have been heavier, and the Treasury will certainly eoc allow obligations to tie evaded in this -way. The fact that many of cur great iron, steel acd engineering firms, though mc-st of them are controlled establishments, and so have to coctrjbnta— SO per cent of their excess profits" ro tha. Exeheqner, ihave yet been a*le to Increase" their dividends, shows clearly that the proportion earmarked for the nation's needs could be very materially increased without causing iardahip o- stifling enterprise.