INCIDENCE OF TAXATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1928, Page 12

INCIDENCE OF TAXATION.

GAS COMPANY AND POWER BOARD. REPLY TO MR. J. H. LTTOX. We have- received the following letter from Mr. L. A. Tozer, Mount Roskill:— "The remarks of Mr. J. H. Upton, chairman of the Gas Company, as published in your columns of the Oj.h inst, are not shared by the vast majority of Auckland citizens. Mr. Upton referred to the supposed inequitable incidence of the Income Tax, whereby the Auckland Gas Company paid £17,500 tax last ycar f while its rivals, the Auckland ElectricPower Board, was exempt. It was a differential tax only found in half-civil-ised countries. The statements are misleading, erroneous, and not justified The Auckland Gas Company is a private company, whose first object is to provide huge dividends for its shareholders and directors, and incidentally produce gas for the public of Auckland at a charge which it considers reasonable. For many years it had the entire monopoly of this city. It would only reticulate where it could get revenue for dividends. The convenience of the public was a secondary consideration. The gas main stopped at a certain point. People lived half-a-mile beyond this main for five and ten years and could not get the use of gas. When a deputation waited on the company it was told that the locality did not warrant the extension, but if the consumers would pay the interest on the cost of the pipe and the laying thereof along the main highway to the main would be extended.

"The street lighting was abominable. Auckland City suffered for years until it was recognised as the most dimly-lit city in Australasia. The Auckland Electric Power Board, like a bolt from the blue, tlien came into existence. It was created by an Act of Parliament, its primary duty being to supply electricitv to Auckland city and the outer areas. It is controlled by the people and all its benefits are for the people. It pays no huge dividends and the public are the shareholders. It did not rival the Gas Company. For street, household lighting and domestic purposes it simply superseded it. There is a vast difference between rivalling and superseding. The Power Board reticulated Auckland and the suburbs, and has gone far into the outer areas for the benefit of country people.. It has done in live years what the Gas Company could not do in a hundred. As the electric car superseded the old horse tram, so the Electric Power Board superseded the old antiquated ideas of the Gas Company. Mr. Upton looks upon the creation of the Power Board as Government intervention. It is 110 such thing. It was formed at the request of the local bodies of Auckland, who represent the citizens of Auckland. Its government is democratic; it was created for the people and is governed by the people, and the people reap the benefits. Mr. Upton now has the audacity to state that because his company, controlled by a few for pecuniary and financial gain only, are compelled by law to pay taxation, that the Power Board, controlled for the people and by the people should also pay a tax. He might as well request the Auckland Hospital Board to pay a tax as in his mind it is rivalling the private medical practitioner. Mr. I ptcm then vainly tries <o support his statement by quoting Eoyal Commissions, chambers of commerce, and lastly the Economic Conference of the League of ■Nations. These institutions have not gone so far as Mr. Upton would lead us demarS clear line of dpninnrnf OI J distinction between nle wiH, r J eS COl,tro4,n fl fcy the peopie with direct representatives, sueh as Mrtwent which » ~,1 J.'V Government." lely tho