Manawatu Daily Times An Old Old Problem

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6954, 6 July 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times An Old Old Problem

At a meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce this week, Mr. E. Salmond, the chairman, made a very earnest

appeal for a revision of the present system of income taxation along the lines recommended by the Taxation Committee of 1922 and practically endorsed by the Taxation Commission of 1924. Mr. Salmond eulogised the recommendations of the Commission as “an ideal system of taxation” under which every individual in the State would be called upon to pay in proportion to his income.

The aim of the public should be, he urged, to bring about a system of taxation based on equity and justice which would press harshly on no individual and no section of the community. Under the present system of levying the income tax a widow with a few pounds invested in company shares would pay at the same rate as would Ihc investor of many thousands. Glaring anomalies of this kind surely should have awakened Parliament to the need for drastic reform.

Mr. Salmond, who has a propensity towards calling a spade a spade, did not hesitate in taking the politicians to account for their hesitancy in dealing with this problem. One of the grievances against the Coates Government had been, he said, that when the Commission’s report was laid before it in 1925 it embodied none of its more important proposals in legislation and offered no reasonable excuse for failing to do so.

The business man of the community had made very strong representations to the Prime Minister and his colleagues on the subject, but beyond personal civilities they were left as “a voice crying in the wilderness.” Business men, the chairman went on to say, hoped for better things from die Ward Government, which had promised in effect equality of sacrifice and a square deal. At the conclusion of tho chairman’s address a motion urging Parliament to give effect to the report of the Commission of 1924 was carried unanimous!v.