"EXCESSIVE TAXATION."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 166, 16 July 1931, Page 9

"EXCESSIVE TAXATION."

BREWING INDUSTRY.

751 PER CENT OF PROFITS.

EFFECT ON SHAREHOLDERS

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day,

Several references to taxation and its effects were made by the chairman of directors of New Zealand Breweries, Ltd., Sir Alfred Banl ■cart, in his address at the annual meeting to-day. "It is an established axiom," said Sir Alfred, "that excessive taxation of an industry inevitably results in a decreased revenue therefrom, due both to the increased price to consumers, and to the temptation 011 the part of the public, not the breweries, to contrive means whereby such taxation can be evaded. In our business, the increase of duty of 2/3 per hogshead has given a great impetus to the 'home brew' industry, which notoriously is not confined to the legitimate brewing of a beer for consumption in the home, but has extended to much gi eater proportions, and to-day a different class of people from that usually associated with the term 'sly-grog seller' is engaged in the traffic. These causes have contributed to the diminution in our sales, with a resultant considerable decrease in the trading profit." . 111 explaining the factors that had decided the directors to reduce the dividend rate, Sir Alfred said: "On one hand we have had the Treasury, in its search for more revenue, falling into the error of endeavouring to exact an impost which the industry is unable to bear, and 011 the other the Government unwisely yielding •to the clamour of interested politicians, with the inevitable result that the estimated revenue lias fallen. Government taxes now take 70.54 per cent of the profits earned, and any further increases must be taken from shareholders, who, in accepting a 2A per cent reduction in the return 011 their capital, have already had to submit to a 'cut' of 16.6 per cent."