EXCESS PROFITS

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 148, 22 June 1917, Page 9

EXCESS PROFITS

10 lIU EDITOB.

;:. Sir.-erThe: Wellington - Central - Ch*m : ■ ber of Commerce passes ■ some strange : resolutions, but the most extraordinary . that.that body has ; ever passed was re-.-ported, in ydiir paper last evening.' : Mr." :A. Leigh Hunt moves: "That ..this^Chamber urges upon the Government the de-~ , sirability of repealing the excess profit's tax provision' of;.the 'Finance; Act, -.as. being inequitable ■ and * unjust, and that the graduated land arid income-tax be extended to:;provide, additional revenue.: during; the. war." In; speaking ;to-the . motion, Mr. ;Hunt said that "it fell particularly ... hard, "on iyoun'g",';" struggling '. businesses ."._,and, ',',;, He;. ;also:'"sta,ted. ."there;...is .a provision _; in' ■ which the- Commissioner of Taxes-can-be appealed, to .in., cases..of .excessive , hardship; but this..view would, of course,;, "bo :a '. narrow : one.;" ■; This-criticism byj ■Mr.; Hunt is in-some respects unjust." . Take,- for -instance,i- the '^.position of . brokers" handling '■ wool. •; In; past- year*;.it has been the custom.for the majority. - of the growers to send■'. their wool. to London for sale there,; but this year: the; Imperial Government; .through-the New Zealand Government, requisitioned all woolj* skihs,' etc., at-, a schedule'value.':: They 7 appointed brokers ■throughoutNew Zealand to handle.the clip on the behalf, of.farmers 'arid the- Government"..." They paid them a fair remuneration? As a :-result.,.of. :.this .all.;the: wool-grown inNew.; Zealand-ha- to pass through- the brokers^ 'hands.^ :The' consequence was'; that, some firms'.who"had^pnly,handled;" two, or three thousand bales the season before, handled nearly three times' the quantity this year, arid; as a result snade^ excess .profits.. ' If the. wool had been shipped Home, as forriierly);. through its 'usual- channels,- -.the -banks,-:-ei&,. -the., quantity handled by. brokers would have ;, .been".'reduced: '.thereby—amounting ; to- - s^me- hundreds'•'of; thousands of;bales.--• Can it therefore be called- fair that the provision 'regarding excess - profits made, by 'these;'brokers- should'be wiped out? The excess profits/-we'rV not made by i their own efforts entirelyi'buti by the Imperial Government;. \ '..'.- requigitioning the wool. As regards struggling films, if. they had not been -in existence the . older firms would have gotrthe business,.; and as *. result the Goyernmeiit would haye^ reaped'probably, more by. way of excess: profits by reason of: the 'greater ' earning power of the big. companies than they would through the smaller firms. • In war time it is a ; question, of live and let- liye, arid, as.far. as I liave. fo'unH. the , Commissioner of Taxes,'. he is ■•' a broa.d-miaded man, land ever, ready to give a square deal,! arid always gives good reasons for the action ho has taken. There may be fairer methods 'of .dealing with war profits than the excess tax," but we have no right to pass-'-i tax ; either on graduated land values or on income-tax that:can.well be boftae by companies vfho. , have earned profits through;having a. too'riopoly.'of" a busi-. ness ino&tly created by author* ;: iies:-rl i:amj.. etc.,".'/.-'"'.":•;-r'."-' '.;.-:..'. -■..; ;'■:■: .:■■■ ■"'•■: --i■.'.-,•■'-,'.'A. BRADFOBO..

19th June.