WAR LOAN AND DEATH DUTIES

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 128, 30 May 1917, Page 6

WAR LOAN AND DEATH DUTIES

The question why the New Zealand Government cannot follow the example set by the Imperial and Commonwealth Governments in accepting its own war stock in payment of death and succession duties still remains to be answered. It was asked at the time the first New Zealand War Loan was issued, it is being asked to-day, and by people who would, no doubt, be safely regarded as prospective investors in the coming second War Loan. Can it be that the reluctance to make such provision suggests "window-dressing"! If necessary, the fact that so much revenue had been received in war bonds in payment of such death and succession duties could be noted in the Budget; although it is true that such receipts could be applied to no othei purpose than the extinction of the Dominion's large and increasing war debt. But is any other purpose superior to that? Besides, the more war (Stock so acquired and so amortised, the less -will be the interest upon the war loans that the Dominion will have to find. The process is simplicity itself, and it is difficult to understand why the Government should not follow the lead of the Imperial and Commonwealth Governments in this matter.