DEATH DUTIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18539, 15 October 1920, Page 6

DEATH DUTIES.

Most people will approve almost any proposal the central feature of which is to increase the death duties on large estates, for the simple reason that this is a means of reinforcing the Treasury at the expense of the rich and the very rich. That is to say, the policy aims as taking money from people who can afford to pay and so giving corresponding relief from taxation to those who are not so financially strong. Just how far a policy of this kind should go, or how far it can go without becoming too confiscatory is another matter. The word "confiscation" has always been very freely used in criticism of tax schedules, but it has ceased to have much terror for economists, while it never had any accepted definition. It is really a matter of degree. There is n» more confiscation in a tax of £40,000 on an estate of £200,000 than there is in an import duty of £1 on a pair of boots. Those who pay the £40,000, however, are fortunate enough to have £160,000 remaining, whereas the bootbuyer often enough has nothing left except the boots, while they last. The Bill introduced into the House of Representatives last night proposes to recast the death and succession duties. At the bottom end of the scale there are moderate reductions, by alterations either in the rates or the exemptions, or in both, while the rates from the middle of the schedules and thereafter are progressively increased, the main change being that whereas the present scale of death duties reaches its maximum of 15 per • cent on an estate valued at £145,000 it is proposed to raise the maximum to 20 per cent and reach that figure at £IOO,OOO. The heaviest increases in the succession duties are, rightly enough, in respect of estates bequeathed to non-relatives, the maximum here rising from 10 per cent tinder the present law is 20 per cent under the Bill. There is a further duty of 10 per cent provided for in the case of an absentee, which explains what Mr Massey meant in saying that in an extreme case as much as 50 per cent might be taken off an estate. That will not occur very often, however, if it ever occurs. We notice that Mr Massey estimates the yield from these increases at about a quarter of a million per annum. If that is all, ■we think the Government might have produced something worthier of the occasion and of the time which the Public Accounts Committee is understood to have occupied in examining the measure. But in giving his estimate of yield Mr Massey may have been iust breaking it gently.

There is a homely but vigorous Scots eaying, " Wo keep oor ain fish guts for oor ain craws," which in spirit can be taken to mean that positions and appointments within the gift of a district go to a, local man in preference to a stranger. Such an attitude may be condemned as parochial when distinctions are too rigidly drawn,' but it is one which could with advantage be adopted more widely than it has been in this Dominion. A condition of affairs under which the brightest and ablest New Zealanders aro forced to emigrate in order to secure tho professional advancement to which they aro entitled is not good for this country. Wo are pleased, therefore, to bo ablo to congratulate, tho Canterbury College Hoard of Governors on its appointment of a Now Zealander, by residence if not by birth, to the important position of bead master of the Christchurch Boys' High School. Mr Lancaster's qualifications' for the post are exceptionally good, and there is no doubt that ho will worthily maintain the very high traditions which this school enjoys. Following closely, as it does, upon the appointment of a New Zealander to the professional chair in economics at Canterbury University College, this latest appointment leads to tho hope that tho days when New Zealanders found it impossible to obtain honour in their own country are disappearing.

A very interesting conference was. held in Sydney last week when delegates from various branches of tb e Housewives' Association assembled to discuss tho cost of living. , They listened to an address by the director of the Bureau of Commerce and Industry, who recommended the manufacture, in Australia, of tweed and cloths from Australian wool. Professor Meredith Atkinson discoursed on co-operative buying and selling, and an organiser was appointed to arrange for the establishment of co-operative stores. As evidence of tho > earnestness of these ladies it may be added that the conference carried a, resolution pledging its members to wear no gloves for tlvrea months, as a protest against the unreasonably high prices of this article of clothing. This sort of action may seem merely amusing to the profiteer, but it is more likely to prove effective than any amount of unavailing complaints nt high prices. Unfortunately, most of tho tilings whose costliness make living a problem are not. as easily done without as gloves.