THE GOLD TAX

Hokitika Guardian, 6 May 1936, Page 4

THE GOLD TAX

POLICY CONDEMNED

COMPARISONS WITH AUSTRALIA- - , AUCKLAND,’ May 4. 1 - ;■ The-placing of ■ an„export , duty j ! om‘ gold iin New Zealand was one of the most foolish. things the -Government ever did,-said Sir Colin Fraser,' ot'-Mel-'O bourne, >, when discussing, in • Auckland 1 aspects of tho revival in gold'mining. Sir Colin- Fraser is-chairman of-direct i tors-of : Gold Mines of Australia, Ltd., ' and i s -.'one ot : the s leaders -, .of , the*/ mining industry in Australia. - Sir Colin paid that ,any government should know better than to tax a com- ; i modity at the source. Jn that case the loser had to pay on ah'. -equal . basis with the -winning proposition! ! .There i was no sipiilar tax on gold in oversea 3 j countries',: and it woqld. ? neverbe , v thought of in relation export commodities. It was time fpr a government to use the tgx-net . wherir companies were on an established pro-fit-earning basis. ,vl;j )j Y HrVjSlk'h "It is dearly-won revenue...for the Government,” said , Sir jColin,; when,it was pointed out to him that, the . taxi yielded about £IOO,OOO a year. He, re- f-: l'erred to; the increase in ,employment ,r and expansion in wealth, won, iroiu. ,* gold, which had followed the sympa-i thetic attitude of Australian govern- : ments to the muring industry. Various forms of assistance were given in the Commonwealth, even to the ox- ' tent of exempting from income ‘. tax cail s paid on mining shares. ..Five years ago the o’utput of gold in- Australia was about 5011,000 fine ounces, but this year it would be more than 1,000,000 ounces. Over the same number of years, the production of gold in New Zealand had increased by only 30,000 ounces to about: l-65,0u0 ounces. It would pay the, Dominion, to take a leaf from Australia’s bookThe policy of subsidising ;: prospectors < was satisfactory up to a point, but help for Cgnlly-washers” would ndfe establish the industry‘in any country. Sir Colin said that alluvial claims on the West Coast of the South Island appeared to be promising. Somo large dredges were being put into oneration there, with favourable results. ■ : - ' ' '"