BUDGET DEBATE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 40, 16 August 1917, Page 3

BUDGET DEBATE

DOMINION'S FINANCIAL

OBLIGATIONS

GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSALS

REVIEWED

A singular feature connected with the Budget debate which is proceeding in the House of Representatives is the number of people, both men and women, who frequent the public galleries from the time the Speaker takes the chair until he announces that the House has adjourned. Quite a number of the men wear khaki. The debate did not get a fresh start until 7,30 p.m. yesterday. BIGGER SACRIFICES LIKELY. Ma". F. Mander urged that the country should deal liberally with soldiers and their dependents, but it would not be wise to confiscate wealth all at once. The taxation proposals this year ran into £5,853,000, and if capital had an idea that it was overtaxed it would not bo good for the future of the Dominion. While our imports had been increasing our exports had decreased, and it was the common-sense view that when exports were below imports it was not a healthy sign. He congratulated the Government on having abolished the Excess Profits Tax, and in this connection he contended that the two forms of taxation proposed should be merged into one, and the higher salaries and estates made to pay still more heavily than at present. If the mortgage tax was abolished and the .graduation raised it would be far more satisfactory. He contended that the man who had his property mortgaged was taxed higher than the man who had his property free. The people should be made to pay as much as possible on the property valuation, and in this connection he expressed a strong desiro to put a heavy tax on the motorcar imported purely for pleasure purposes. So far there was no sign of the people denying themselves anything. He was afraid that if the war went on for a year or two longer we might ■ be required to make very much bigger sacrifices. As to compulsory service, he considered that at feast one capable man should be left on every farm, so that the land should not "go back." There were many men in the cities—in drapers' shops and lawyers' offices, for instance— who could be "better spared, at any rate for the present. In his concluding remarks he declared that if the farmers' produce had not been commandeered, but had been put on the open market, it would have brought about three millions more than it had' brought. That was why the farmers objected to being willed on to make any larger sacrifices. SO FEW ANOMALIES. ■ Mr. C. H. Poole said that we were committing huge financial obligations to future generations, ibut at it-he same time we were handing down' to them freedom and liberty. All sane sacrifice that would help to win the war at the present time was justifiable. He complained that the "Chancellor of: the Exchequer" of the country had not enough "punch" or "kiok," although he was so skilled in finance that he believed he had no peer in this Dominion. The document produced by the Minister of Finance contained so -few anomalies tha/t the teeth of the violent bad been diawn in many cases. Speaking of the National Cabinet, ha said the Liberal Party expected its representatives to represent them in Ca/binet, and to enable them to feel that there was an organisation of compromise. Both sides, however, were disappointed, but the commoners of the Assembly were doing their best to help the Cabinet along in a great patriotic endeavour. Some of them were courting political annihilation, but, "who lives if England dies?" and they were all impressed with the excellence of tho Budget which the National Cabinet had produced. As to the Budget, the question arose: Who is to pay? Town or country? There seemed to be a tendency to drift further apart. That was a thing to be deprecated. Neither should look upon the other with any suspicion, for both owed much to the 'other. In responses to the efforts of the scientist who had produced such wonderful machinery, the fanner was responsible for 5S per cent, of the exports of the Dominion.. City and town were aibsolntely inseparable, if there was to bo a continuity of production. Regarding the calling up of the Second Division, he urged that the House would be compelled to recognise huge financial obligations, and the demand had to be faced, with all seriousness. Dealing further with the Budget, Mr. Poole contended that great discretion had to be exercised in connection with men who would not invest in war bonds. Some men bad all their money locked up and could not possibly invest, (n regard to tho demand for early closing of hotels he contended that it came, not from the aggressive fighting forces of prohibition, but from thousands and thousands of business men, who were fully persuaded that such restriction 'was .necessary. A HEALTHY BRAKE. Mr. C. J. Talbot paid a very high compliment to the Minister of Finance (Sir Joseph Ward) for a remarkable Budget, and recalled his old-time designation of "The Wizard of Finance." There were no misgivings as to our ability to foot the bill, but he considered that up to the present time not enough toll had been taken out of the profits made through the war. He believed that most people were willing- to be taxed on war profits. The more taxation they paid now, the less they would have to pay afterwards, and, in any case, heavy taxation was a healthy brake on unhealthy extravagance. He advocated that a "bachelor" tax should be imposed on single men who received £250 and over. It was quite possible that a man with £200' income might be in a better position than a married man with a family .who received £500 a, year. There were families that had sent no boys at all to the front, and they should be subjected to additional income tax. Money should be taken on the same principle as that on which men were being taken. Physically strong men were being taken, and the financially strong man should be taxed. LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE. Dealing with land taxation, Mr. Talbot maintained that the increase was proportionately larger on tlie email areas than the large ones. He was in. favour of a level land tax with a stiffly ascending graduated tax on land over a certain value. He opposed the tax on tea, wliich he thought was a mistake on the part -of the Government. It would put up the price of tea to the extent of 10 to 13 per cent., and he was afraid that a great deal of the extra profit would go to the seller. As fa-r as taxation was concerned, the policy seemed to be to take the line of least resistance, and he thought that this policy should not be followed too much. There should be more prohibition and taxation on luxuries. He complained that the Government ha 3 not imposed a tax on motor tires, with the object of handing tho money back for the upkeep oE country roads.

At 10.50 p.m. the debate was adjourned, on the motion of Mr. Statham, and the House rose.