MORE TAXATION FORESHADOWED

Evening Star, Issue 16547, 5 October 1917, Page 4

MORE TAXATION FORESHADOWED

government finances STRAITENED. INCOME TAX EXEMPTION MAY BE LOWERED. NEED FOR RIGID ECONOMY. [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, October 5.ihe Government are now giving-serious amsideration to the question of down before the session ends supplementary financial legislation providing for an increase in the Local War Loan and also tor additional taxation. The position seems to be that everybody nas been demanding everything, and the Government have tried to serve all, with tho result that the accounts threaten to lose their balance. Perhaps tho most potent factor is the, disquieting decrease in revenue for the first half of the current financial year, this decline being dub principally to the marked scarcity of shipping. Tdien the war expenditure has increased f? P rmhnn nC n ° W e l ceeds the rate of ±,2,000 00° per month, with the certainty of further increase,, owing to the reallv P l'r Mls Government vl speetbg soldiers and their dependents. It may be said for the pleasure of cocksure optimists and economists that tho Administrators have not fallen into a sort of f P essi uusm. They merely see conCrete facts and the steady drift towards embarrassment. There are, of course many other factors that one cannot discuss but sensible folk should realise the °[- !Vlng "mply,. working steadily and practising more vigorous economy

It is very probable that a supplementary Finance Bill will be introduced, giving the P ° Wer t0 raUo an additional i4,tw,000 for war purposes, and providmg for further taxation, involving possibly a considerable reduction in the present Income lax exemption limit of ££oo It is now practically certain that there 7'i no furthc j; i increases in pensions and allowances. There is a limit even to iNew Zealand s resources.