TAXATION AT MAXIMUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 234, 2 October 1940, Page 4

TAXATION AT MAXIMUM.

INDUSTRIES IN NEW ZEALAND. "I would like to draw attention to the burden of taxation which this association, in common with other trading companies, is bearing at the present time," said Mr. C. P. Agar, chairman of directors' of the Isew Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association of Canterbury, Ltd., at the annual meeting of shareholders. ' "The Government has a right to expect from both capital, employers and labour co-operation on the difficult conditions arising from war. On the other hand, it is easy to prescribe a policy of 'pay as you go' without realising the full repercussions that may arise from such a policy. "With the full knowledge and with the full sense of the responsibility of the statement I am making, I unhesitatingly eay that if the Government takee £6000 out of every £10,000 that the trading companies of this Dominion' make in profits they have reached the 'peak' of the taxation that industry and trade are able to bear and to carry on with. "In the paet Governments have said, 'Put it on, put it on, put it on'—and industry and trade find their own way of carrying the burden. "That may have been true in the past, but it is equally as true that the peak limit has been reached in taxation and that any further increases can only have one ultimate result, and that is a lowering of the amount of taxation received by the Government."