LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 88, 15 April 1933, Page 14

LABOUR NOTES.

JJNION ACTIVITIES.

?■ XBj INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS TOR THE WEEK. Monday, April 17 to Friday 21.—Annual Conference of New Zealand Labour party.

LABOUR CONFERENCE. Next week promises to be a big week jin Auckland Labour circles, it being the week devoted to the annual Labour Conference, at which the policy of the party can be amended or reaffirmed for the next twelve months. Delegates representing organisations in all parts of the Dominion arrive by train to-morrow morning, and will be given a reception on Sunday evening in the Prince Edward Theatre. The speakers will be Mr. P. Eraser, M.P. (Wellington), the Rev. Clyde Carr, M.P. (Timaru) and Mr. J. McComhs, M.P. (Lyttelton). The .conference proper will be opened on Easter Monday, in the Trades Hall, and in the obsenee of the President, Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P., who is in England, the chair will be taken by the vice-pre-sident, Mr. W. Atkinson. The agenda paper, consisting of amendments to rules and constitution, and special remits on various matters, is a long one and will take till Friday to dispose of. In addition to these questions, it is a certainty that the present position of politics as. it affects New Zealand will come up for consideration. Financial matters will receive exhaustive consideration, and some of the delegates have even suggested the advisability of discussing economic planning for industries over a given period of years, a la Soviet Russia, or the Forbes-Coates Government when it extended the life of the present Parliament from three years to four years, to give time for certain schemes to mature. Unemployment is sure to receive much attention from the conference. In view of the replies recently given by Mr. Bromley and the Minister of Labour re the ad-ministration of the Unemployment Act regulations, there is every prospect of this matter assuming a new phase if the Department acts up to the tenor of these replies. Another matter to be discussed will be the position of unions who have failed to obtain awards or agreements, of which there are quite a number. This conference will be followed by an industrial conference, to which all Dominion unions have been invited. The purpose of this second conference is to finalise the constitution drafted by the Open Conference held in Wellington on March 31, 1932. In pursuance of this constitution, joint councils have already been formed in Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland, and it is probable that the long looked for unity will soon be established. * : • INCOME TAX RETURNS. r have received an inquiry as to the •ma.lring out of the income tax returns, which are shortly due, but I am afraid I cannot answer it in this column. My correspondent is wrong in his contention that wages, or salary is not income. It is; although, on the other hand, income is not necessarily wages or salary, as it < may come from other sources. I am afraid my questioner will have to work out his own problem with gomd friendly prompter at his elboW, as the process is a much involved one. A southern writer, on this question, puts it; "At first sight the income tax form contains much that the overage citizen would like to ignore. However, if the citizen remembers that there is no taxation Without misrepresentation, he will tell. the Government everything—or nearly everything. There are short cuts to everything, and, therefore, there'are simple ways of filling in an income tax form. Take your salary for the year, if any. This can be done by simple arithmetic. Add the two shillings picked up in the Square on last New Year's morning,- subtract the cost of repairs to spouting, footpaths and footwear. Then add the profits from the sale of secondhand clothes, bottles, and so on, to the itinerant dealer. Subtract church contributions and add interest on money in the Post Office Savings Bank (sd), plus the sixpence found in the trousers pocket of that discarded suit. Subtract ali taxes paid through petrol bowsers, picture theatres, place betting and so on. Add your income from other sources, take it all away and buy yourself a-hew tie. Then take away the exemption for your wife, your children, your lodge, your life insurance and superannuation fund (again, if any) and behpld the Government owes you twopence, to which you are entitled to a refund if applied for on foolscap form."