BUSINESS QUESTIONS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 51, 23 November 1917, Page 7

BUSINESS QUESTIONS

DISCUSSED BY CENTRAL CHAMBER

OF COMMERCE

CONFERENCE REMITS

A general mooting of the members of the Wellington Central Chamber of Commerce was held last night, Jlr. A. Leigh Hunt presiding.

Tho meeting was convened to give members an opportunity of discussing certain matters of public and commercial interest. Remits are to go forward to tho annual conference of Chambers of Commerce from the Wellington Central Chamber, and it was considered desirable that the delegates shall have an opportunity of discussing these niatters with members before the meeting of tho conference. Bankruptcy Law. Mr. J. S. Barton spoke of the need for reform of the bankruptcy law in this country. He said that the present system was wasteful, and in every way uiideoiratik , , eliieiiy because assigned estates were administered by persons who had not had business training. Proof of this was to bo found in the very large number of estates which were assigned by deed without recourse to the official assignees..' Mr. Barton's proposal was that we should adopt tho Victorian system, under which estates of bankrupts were administered by public accountants, who, for this purpose, were clothed with special powers similar to thoso exercised by the Official Assignee in, New Zealand. This system had advantages over the system of-private assignment, as practised in New Zealand. Public accountants wero registered, and were a- wclWisciplined body of professional men. In New Zealand it was possible, that a privato assignee might be other than a desirable person. He thought that bet.tor administration of estates could bo secured under this Victorian svstem than was generally given by the Official Assignee and his deputies in this country. He discussed also several detail amendments whicb,,_tl)p chamber would suggest, should bo made in the Bankruptcy Act.

In the course of subsequent discussion, Mr. Hunt deplored the apathy of the Government on this question, mid of tho need for reform of the bankruptcy law. Ho thought that not only should all traders he required to keen proper hooks, but they should he required to protect those books from fire. Very often it happened that traders who wore iu difficulties set fire to their offices and destroyed their books, and so destroyed a record which should bo available for the protection of creditors. Taxation. Mr. Barton spoke also on tho snbjp.ot of taxation. He first discussed tho proposed remit to the conference protesting against levying income tax on companies as on individuals. Now that there was a very heavy graduated income tax this method of collecting was extremely inequitable. He advocated the taxing of dividends at tho point of receipt—as tho income of the individual shareholder—and the taxation of the undistributed profits at the source as now, by levying upon tho company. Need for Economy. Mr. A, Leigh Hunt discussed a remit of the council, the object of which is to proinoto national efficiency and economy. He expressed approval of tho Efficiency Board, and urged that tho business community should support tho board in measures for economy. Hβ was strongly of opinion that the high degree of national efficiency that was desirable would never bo achieved in this country without much closer co-opora-tion between capital and labour than obtained to : day. His idea was that present-day labour problems would never he solved by legislation, but rather by co-partnership and profitsharing schemes. Without economy and efficiency it was possible that if the war went on for two or three years longer this country would bo unable to meet the cost of tho war, and tho debt duo by way of pensions to soldiers and their dependants. Now, whilo thero wcro big profits, was the timo to institute economies. Prices of our products were high, but it was quite possible that something might happen— shortage of shipping- for example—to reduce those price's by half. He mado a strong appeal for economy. Education anrj the Workers. IVf.r. L. A. Edwards dealt with tlio Workers' Educational Association. Ho prefaced his talk with a saying of President Wilson's that nine-tenths of the troublo in tho world was due not to positive oyil but to ignorance. He spoke generally of the great good of education to the State, and he enunciated the proposition that not sufficient importance was attached to education by tho British people and the people of this country. He believed that business men and working men could better get together and understand one another at such classes as were held under the direction of the Workers' Educational Association than in any other way. Excellent work was being done by this association in New Zealand and by tho parent association' in Britain. The demand of the workers for all that the universities would give them was one that could not be denied. Tho association was a thoroughly satisfactory institution doing remarkably good work, and it was really bringing together capital and labour. Mi\ T. Forsyth supported the statements of Mr. Edwards as to tho very valuable work being done in Wellington by the Workers' Educational Association. He regretted that the Government had not given a grant for the classes this year.