Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1925. MISLEADING COMPARISONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 276, 26 October 1925, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1925. MISLEADING COMPARISONS.

Tim taxation question is receivingl a good deal of attention at the hands of Labour candidates throughout the Dominion. As the material used is all on the same lines, it may be taken for granted it is supplied from the one source, and it would seem that anything but honest use is being made of figures in the endeavour to prove that an attempt has been made, and will probably be continued, by the Government to transfer the load from the wealthier class of taxpayer to people with smaller incomes. The table in use has been rather skilfully designed, to deceive the unthinking portion of the electors. It simply contrasts the increased revenue derived from Customs and Excise duties with the reductions made in the income tax since 1922. The fact that incomes may have shrunk in the interval does not appear to have been considered as having any weight against the argument which is put forth to support the idea that the working classes are worse off, as a result of the direct tax reductions, than they were when the heavier levies were made upon the income taxpayers. One of the statements contained in the pamphlets which are being so extensively circulated throughout the Dominion implies that income taxpayers have been relieved of taxation to the amount of £13,425,605 during the last three years. To support that idea the increased revenue derived from Customs and Excise during the years 1922-23, 1923-24 and 1924-25 has been tacked, on to the reduced amounts paid in income tax, and the two amounts, added together, arc supposed to represent the actual proportion transferred from the income taxpayers to the shoulders of the general community. The table and the arguments used in its suppoit are as fallacious as they are misleading. They do not bear analysis, the arguments being positively untruthful. Income taxpayers are largely, if not exclusively, land taxpayers also, -and they belong to the class which contributes almost solely to the revenue derived from death duties, etc. If count is taken of the amounts realised on these three forms of taxation —income and land tax and death duties — it will be found that, altogether apart from the share of Customs and Excise revenue which these wealthier classes of the community contribute, the latter have actually been paying for many years past nearly three-quarters of the taxation revenue raised m the Dominion. Those circulating the statement and table to which we have referred conveniently

ignore tlie fact that for many years past, practically from the establishment of general government in New Zealand, the greater portion of the taxation revenue has been raised through Customs and Excise duties, that being the most convenient, and least oppressive form of levy on the public generally. The comparison made by the New Zealand Labour Party sets forth that, at the present time, the proportion of each ,£IOO of taxation revenue contributed by Customs and Excise duties amounts to £52 8s (52.40 per cent.). Reference to file figures of bygone years shows that, as far back as 1904 73.93 per cent, of the total taxation revenue was raised at the Customs that year; in 1906 the proportion was 72. 77 per cent.; in 1908 69.26 per cent.; in 1910 65.63 per cent.; and 64.16 per cent, in 1912, the year the Reform Government took office. Readers of the “Standard” are well aware that, as a result of the heavy expenditure necessitated by the war, both income and land taxpayers were called upon to contribute more heavily to the taxation revenue of the State and from these two sources alone, during the ten years ended 1924-25, no less a sum than £62,962,143 was contributed by land and income taxpayers to the State revenue. Payments in respect of death duties brought that total up to £74,111,842 during the same period; whereas Customs and Excise collections during the ten years only totalled £57,510,905. And it is a well-recognised fact that by far the larger proportion of Customs and Excise revenue is contributed by the wealthier classes of the community. Their proportion of the Customs taxation has been set down as being not less than 50. per cent, of the total. It would probably be nearer 60, or even 70 per cent.; because people whose incomes are less than £3OO per annum, and who therefore are not subject to direct taxation, do not indulge in the luxuries and comforts to the same extent as the wealthier classes of the community. Now, if to the £74,111,843 received m respect of land and income tax and death duties, etc., we add the suggested 50 per cent, of Customs duties paid by these wealthier classes on to the total, the fact brought out is that, as against the £28,755,452 possibly contributed by people with small incomes through the Customs (it is probably considerably less), the wealthier classes have, during the last ten years, contributed no less than £102,867,295 to the taxation revenue of the country. And that appears to be the truth of the matter so far as the taxation question is concerned.