IN PARLIAMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 304, 23 November 1937, Page 2

IN PARLIAMENT

JOTTINGS FROM THE HOUSE.. THE GRADUATED LAND TAX. “The graduated land tax can be justified perhaps 10 per cent,” declared the Leader of the Opposition (Hon. A. Hamilton) in the House of Representatives yesterday, “but it is 90 per cent unjustifiable. It is wrong that a tax which proves so inequitable and which calls for the provision of a hardship clause should continue in operation, and the Government would do well to reconsider the imposition of the tax. Taxation is necessary because the State must have revenue and our first duty as citizens is to the State. However, we expect the State to obtain its revenue from taxation in a just manner.” INTERNAL LOANS. 0 Referring to the provision in the Finance Bill authorising the raising of £6,000,000 for public works and £2,000,000 for main highways, the Minister of Finance (Hon. W. Nash) stated; “I expect we will borrow it from various sources in New Zealand where savings are available, but it will not lie borrowed from overseas. Balances in the Post Office Savings Bank can be utilised in exactly the same fashion as those balances have been utilised ever since the Post Office Savings Bank was first established.” “A GREAT BORROWER.” “This Government objects to interest, yet it is a great borrower,” said Mr Hamilton. The Government was empowering itself to borrow to the extent of £8,000,000. ' The Minister of Finance had told the House that all the money might not be needed this financial year, but it would be interesting to see just how much was borrowed before the session ended? Interest was anathema to the Labour Party yet it was a great believer in borrowmS‘ “WRESTLER’S HOLD.” “The hardship commission I really think should be called the hard case commission,” said Mr W. J. Broadfoot referring to the provision for appeals from graduated land tax assessments.. The clause was of limited application because it applied only to the two years ending March 31, 1938. It was a temporary measure only. Why it should not be made permanent he could not understand. It was the same old story that the Minister loved to have a real wrestler's hold on tlie poor old taxpayer. “A VENGEANCE TAX.” “A vengeance tax” was the description applied to the graduated land tax by Mr Hamilton. “It seems that the Minister has had a year’s experience and has found that there are cases of extreme hardship in the payment of the graduated land tax,” he said. “On this side of the House we go further than that and say that the whole tax is unjust. I have already said that it is nothing more than a political tax; it can even be described as a" vengeance tax.” INCOME TAX PROBLEM. The statement that the Government was unable to collect some £37,000 or £38,000 in income tax from the former Waihi Gold Mining Company, Ltd., owing to funds having been transferred from New Zealand, was made by the Minister of Finance, when moving the second reading of the Finance Bill. “The company paid income tax on the dividends it paid in 1935,” Mr Nash added. “After'.that it was able to accumulato sums which would have enabled it to pay another dividend, but the assessment for tax could not be made until that dividend had been paid. The company paid £91,800 in dividends, but said it had not received a claim for the income tax on that dividend, and as the company w-as then in liquidation, and had since been liquidated, when the claim was sent, it was claimed that there was no company to pay the department. Consequently we could not collect some £37,000 or £38,000 that was due in income tax.” SOLDIERS’ SETTLEMENT. “'ln the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Account, when the accounts are finalised, it is anticipated that after £13,500,000 has been provided out of accumulated reserves, the sum lost and estimated to be lost will be approximately £0,820,000,” stated Mr Nash. “This is due to the fact that a large sum was expended in a comparatively short space of time on the purchase of land, causing the price of land to appreciate beyond its real value.” Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes: Does that include the amount written off? “It is estimated that the sum of £3,927,000 has been written off to date,” Mr Nash said, “and further amounts are being written off under the Mortgagors and Lessees Rehabilitation Act.” PETROL FROM COAL. Mr W. P. Endean asked the Minister of Mines if there had been any developments in New Zealand concerning the extraction of petrol from coal. “Sooner or later,” he said, “The ingenuity of man will solve the difficulty of countries such as New Zealand where there is no natural flow of petrol that we know of.”