WAGES FOR WIVES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1938, Page 14

WAGES FOR WIVES

WORK IN MILKING SHEDS An amusing incident occurred during question time at the meeting addressed by the Minister of Finance and Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, at Morrinsville, states the "New Zealand Herald." A woman who described herself as a representative of the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union asked the Minister why an allowance was not made under the guaranteed price scheme for wages earned, but not received, by a farmer's wife who helped her husband in the milking shed. The questioner said she thought an allowance equal to the value of the wife's services should be made in the farmer's income tax returns. She added that the pin money a business man allowed his wife was exempt from taxation. The Minister: Oh, no, it is not. The Woman: Oh, yes, it is. The Minister: Well, I happen to be in charge of the Taxation Department, and if there is any case of a person evading taxation on account of the pin money he paid his wife, I'll be after him. The Minister went on to say that the point raised by the questioner with respect to the value of a wife's services in the milking shed was a good one, and that he would look into it. He pointed out, however, that a small dairy farmer was given substantial exemptions with respect to income tax and that few were required to pay it. A man could not be made to pay his wife wages, but he would be glad to consider whether some means could be devised by which an allowance could be made for her services. The point was one that had not been raised before.