NEW TAXES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 243, 15 October 1931, Page 7

NEW TAXES.

APPROVED BY HOUSE. LAND RELIEF CHALLENGED. LABOUR AMENDMENTS LOST. SOME GOVERNMENT SUPPORT. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Sitting until 4.35 this morning, the House of Representatives put through all stages and passed the annual Taxing Bill and the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill, giving effect to the Budget proposals. The main bone of contention was the abolition of the graduated land tax, but some attention was paid to the taxation of town dwellers, it being held that Cabinet seemed to have forgotten that many business men were in the same straits as the farming community.

The second reading debate lasted until 2 a.m., and over two and a half hours were spent in committee, when an effort by Mr. M. J. Savage, deputyLeader of the Labour party, to restore the present system of graduated land taxation was defeated by a small majority. Nine members of the Government party voted for the amende ment, « To enable the' representations from the Waihi Gold Mining Company to be considered, consideration of a proposal regarding the taxation of gold mining dividends was postponed.

The discussion in committee on tile short title was so protracted, that clause one was not passed until 3.30 a.m. Mr. A. Harris (Reform, Waitemata) shortly afterwards suggested, when the clause affecting the graduated, land tax was under discussion, that progress be reported. No reliable figures had been given regarding the actual benefit of the abolition of the graduated tax to landowners of various degrees of unimproved .value, and he preferred to move to report progress rather than vote on something he was unable fully to understand. Remission of £3^0,000. The Prime Minister replied that the matter had been before the House a week, and it was well known that the total abolition of graduation meant, after the 5 per cent allowance, a remission of £320,000. The owner of unimproved land of the value of £5000 would pay £510 8/4 less than formerly.

The clause was allowed to pass without a division, but when the committee reached the provision for the extension of time to taxpayers suffering through the Hawke's Bay earthquake, Mr. Savage revived the graduated tax topic by proposing to include within the concession any landowner unable to pay owing to economic causes. That, he said, would remove the necessity to abolish the graduated tax.

The amendment was defeated by 41 to IS, the minority including Messrs. Atmore, Wilkinson, Hogan, and Black. The Division List. ' There was a more specific test, when Mr. Savage moved to restore the present system of graduated land tax, and on a division the amendment was negatived by 33 to 20. The list is as follows:— For the Amendment (26). Armstrong -Full ' Atmore Langstone Barnard Ly e > Black 1 McCombs Carr McDonald Dickie Miinns Fraser Nash, W. Harris O'Brien Hogan Parry Holland, H. Savage Holland, H. E. " Sullivan Howard Wilkinson Jordan Wright Against the Amendment (33). An sell ■ Macmillan Bitchener Macpherson Broadfoot Makitanara Burnett Massey, J. N. Campbell • Murdoch ! Clinkard Nash, J. A. Coates Ngata Cobbe Ransom Donald • Rushworth Eudean Samuel Field Smith Forbes 'Stewart Hamilton Sykes Hawke - Waite Jones " ' Williams Kyle Young Linklater ' The bills were read a third time and passed, and the House adjourned until 7.30 p.m.