A CANDID CRITIC

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9771, 31 July 1924, Page 5

A CANDID CRITIC

accumulated surpluses and TAXATION.

"SHOULD PAY OUR WAY AS WE GO ALONG/’

MR. ROLLESTON’S YIEWS

WELLINGTON, July 30

Mr. P. J. Rolleston, in the course •of his speech on the Budget debate this afternoon!, expressed the opinion that the mass of figures and tables in the Budget could not be easily understood by members and that they should be carefully scrutinised by the Public Accounts Committee, which apparently had ceased to> function last session. It was impossible for any ..private member to go through the figures intelligently without assistance from the heads of Departments ■or the Ministers concerned. In re- . gard to the collection of income tax, he expressed the opinion that more • district tax offices should be established. Many of the present prosecutions would be unnecessary if there were some officers in each district acting on behalf of the Tax Commissioner, who would make it his business to see that the people in a district Were sending in proper returns. He took it that for every prosecution there had been there were many others that should have been made, with the result that there had been a large loss of revenue. Mr. Rolleston had a few, words to say about the accumulated surpluses. These should not be carried on, but each year’s accounts should rest on' ■ their own basis. Assuming that last ..year’s operations had rested on their own basis, the actual surpluses in this Budget would have been only £387,365. If that was the true position it was an answer to the criticism that an undue amount of taxation had been wrung from the people. He held 1 that the accumulated surpluses should have been used in the reduction of the war debt. It was true that if that had been done they would not have had thirteen millions to spend on soldier-settlement, but then there would have been no land boom, and no after troubles such as they had had. ft was not’ too late to apply what was left of the accumulated surpluses to loan redemption. Then they, would reach the position that each year would stand on its own basis. In regard to finance, the policy in England since the war had been a policy of deflation tending to bring us back to the gold standard. "When they had’ got back to that position, then everyone who had lent £IOO would, in fifteen or sixteen years, receive bank in purchasing power just •double what he had lent. As we got back to the gold standard we would, under the. present circumstances, find the burden of our war debt becoming greater ar.d greater. There was, he held, nothing to reduce taxation this year, nor was there anything to jusr tify remissions last year. (Labor "Hear! Hear!”) If remissions were now made he .feared that in the future the Finance Minister would have to increase taxation to make up his revenue and that would be a had policy. Possibly some remissions could be made through the Customs, but what they gave back in Customs would have to he made up in indirect taxation. He thoroughly agreed with the warning sounded the previous evening by the Minister for Education in regard to public and private borrowing. It had been said that this was driving the country into bankruptcy. He (Mr. RollestorJ) did not think that it was doing that yet, but it seemed to him that we should seriously consider the position in regard to our borrowing policy so as to keep ourselves financially sound. He believed that we should pay our way as we went along to a. great extent fronn revenue.

The time to practise economy was not when times were bad, Irat when times were good, and that was now. We should have something to face the possibility of a falling revenue which might happen at any time. Dealing with the Taxation Commission’s report, Mr. Rolleston said he agreed with the criticisms against both the scope and the constitution of the Commission. He thought it had not been wise to confine it to direct taxation, and if they wanted a fair report on the subject from all aspects, they had no right to exclude from the personnel to the Commission a political economist and a representative of Labor. Hear! Hear!_) As to the report of the Commission, he agreed with some of the findings and disagreed with others. He thought that the Commission had once and for all settled the question of company taxation, but there was no need to wait till 1925 before putting this recommendation into force. We should not even "for one year continue the present anomalies in our system. We should remove the anomalies and the injustice without delay. Ho did not, however, agree with what the Commission had said about land taxation. The Commission had ignored the fact that if the graduated tax were removed the necessity for it might reappear. Exactly the same evils as had occurred in tho past might arise again. The land speculator and the land aggregator were two evils that no one should want to perpetuate. Mr. Rolleston, in concluding, stated that he had spoken in a hostile way, but had endeavored simply to take ’Up a non-partisan point of view.— Special.