PASSING "CUT" ON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 151, 29 June 1931, Page 9

PASSING "CUT" ON.

LOWER GAS CHARGES. AUCKLAND COMPANY'S MOVE. TAXES PREVENT MORE RELIEF. The Auckland. Gas Company has decided to make the 10 per cent "cut" in all wages and salaries, including directors' fees, as from July 1 " 2. The "cut" will mean about £14.000 per annum to the company. . Against this, income tax has "oeen increased by £9000 this year, and there is a prospect of a. further increase next year. Gas prices, the schedule of which will be advertised, will be reduced. Coke prices also will be reduced. ••'.'•.-■ "Were it not for increasing income tax, the company would pass on all savings due to the wages 'cut,'" said the general manager,' Mr. James Lowe. "The rate of dividend has . not. 'been increased since pre-war times; there-

fore it should hot be reduced below prewar level. The company has not been in the habit of carrying forward large surpluses after payment of its moderate dividend, preferring rather to reduce prices. Thu? it reduced its gas rates in 1922, 1923, 1924, 1923, and 1030, saving' the gas consumers of Auckland £90,000 per annum in the aggregate. "In view of the increasing taxation required to make up, amongst other things, losses on railways and hydroelectric works, it is clear that the full amount' of the wages 'cut' cannot be passed on. Gas consumers may be assured that whatever net savings result from, future lowered-costs of materials and wages will be passed on to them."