MORE FORMS TO FILL

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 10

MORE FORMS TO FILL

LATEST DEMANDS

NON-PRODUCING EFFORT

Forms, forms, more and more forms, have to be filled in. The latest are I those relating to overseas securities held in New Zealand. These forms are now available at post offices and banks. Officials, male and female, behind post office grills have now much more to do than sell stamps and register letters, or make out postal orders. So great is the demand on the Government Printing Office resources for forms and still more forms —and sometimes by the million —that forms for returns of holding of overseas currency and securities were not available in time to permit their return, duly filled in and signed, within the fourteen days required. The time had to be extended. Now that the forms are available they can be studied with deliberation'before being filled in, signed, and returned not later than July 31. Heavy are penalties for failure to fill in the forms with accuracy or for incomplete disclosure of holdings. All holdings of bonds, treasury bills, and stock issued by overseas countries, all local body debentures, all company debentures, all shares held, have to be disclosed and detailed particulars of them given; so too must all overseas currency—bank-notes and coin. Presumably the sovereign on the watch chain or the dollar on the brooch has to be reported; Promissory notes, bills, of exchange, all these must be declared. The future is full of complications, and not only for the holders of such securities. The Federal Government of Australia as well as that of this Dominion will have some exceedingly intricate problems to solve if complete disorganisation of business and individual suffering are to be averted. The aggregate value of New Zealandowned overseas securities, stocks, bonds, debentures, shares, and the like, and of currencies is not at present known. It has been guessed at, but in any case it is considerable. But many of those securities are greatly reduced in value on market prices ruling and paid before the war, in some cases by 25 to 50 per cent.; but they were bought in good faith and held in hopes of better times. Moreover some of them continued to pay dividends which were a large part, or perhaps the whole, income of the holders. Now, when the social security form has been filled in, and sent in, and the income tax form has been filled in and sent in, or is being filled in— now come the overseas holdings forms to be filled in. In some cases three •of them, two white and a buff, have to be used. The clerical labour, involved in checking over and collating and filling this snowstorm of forms must be stupendous. And it is increasing. The premises of the Reserve Bank may soon be quite inadequate to provide for future form-checkers. It is certainly an impressive sight to see every morning, Saturdays and Sundays excepted, the streams of people of both sexes, mostly young, flowing into the great tax factory in Courtenay Place, where filled-forms are "processed."