FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16477, 1 September 1915, Page 7

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

I OPENING OF DEBATE. I (Pkb United Pbbss Association.) WELLINGTON, August 31. The debate on the Budget was opened to-night by Mr Wilford, who, proposed, as one of those who took an interest in public affairs, to offer some criticism of one of the most ' momentous Budgets ever placed before Parliament. His criticism would, however, be as far as possible of a constructive nature, designed to improve the measures which would, be brought down to give effect • to the proposals set out in the Budget. In the first place, ho thought at such 1 a time as this we should have a national stocktaking or a census of capacity. In this .connection- he did not agree with the - Australian criticism of the /National Registration Bill, for tho statement that it amounted to conscription was a. fallacy. It was necessary that we wiould know what material we had on hand. Canada had done ;much, but Sir Robert Borden had admitted that they did not know what their national /resources were. Gerinany's success had been. largely built upon .the knowledge she had of herself.: National stocktaking did not, mean conscription, but as necessary, in riien as in other material. H© suggested that the national register should Hp. extended) to women, who. were ever willing to do their share in this great war. , They only- Ranted tho opportunity land the proper guidance. Speaking of the taxation proposals; in the Budget, Mr, Wilford said the proposed taxes on farmers and landowners, must not be regarded as bursting-up taxes; but as revenue-pfoducing taxes-for war purposes. In adjusting these taxes. care must be taken to differentiate between those who made large profits and those who. had'-made none* • In considering questions of taxation in war time he' would, if ho could, sweep away allbarriers existing between ;■all parts of our Empire. % He instanced what had been done by the Indian Government, which took control of the wheat market, and was thereby able ; to send ; to Britain 2,000,000 tons of' wheat and to stop the. operations of the specula- ! tors. This was not a time to allow anyone to make large profits out of the necessities of the people. He complained that a sufficiently drastic tax was not proposed upon : the banks tradirig, in the Shipping, and other wealthy companies should be taxed on their enormous, profits, and rich merchants who had made ibig money 6ut of the State put of war contracts should be, made to pay through tho medium of the f incomo tax. These, firms should be' made to disclose, their profits ' before and since the war commencca, and he would ..come down upon them with a stifiF tax. The taxation _ proposed in tl*e . Budget on company., dividends was Unfair, ' falling with undue weight'' upon th& small shareholder. As a\ result of Britain controlling the seas Germany had been compelled to . organise herself for war, and. consequently she had become more self-support-ing than she had ever been before. This, was a reteult .that' no one - had :, «ver contemplated, arid'l the'.lesson was that we must exercise the greatest public and private economy.. It 'had.been- calculated that Britain would have {to borrow ttfo hundred thousand- million: pounds to carry on the • war, and that the additional liability ;placed upon the country as the result of that borrownig would be 1 one hundred., and tbjrty thousand millions. There .was. therefore no room in Britain for great profits made .out of the-waf,' .Chir! enemies liad suspended the laws of'supply arid demand.. There was no bargaining, with 'the State. We had admitted 'bargaining here, and it must stop. That was the ;.oi»ly, spirit would 'Moid to ,the successful issue of the It waa scandalous that, after a year of war, bar- \ gaining was still going on here,, and no appealed to the National Government to bring ' it to an end. Bargaining with the, State was "business asi usual," 1 and that was one of the most damnftblecloctrines 1 he.knew'of and 1 the . men who stood for that idea were both disloyal and unpatriotic. Some men . refused to accept w.ar profits, but they cOuld : be counted on the fingers of the hand. Taxation, was the . only system jn which voluntary effort hid ilo " Taxation ; must be remedial, and, to be remedial; it must bo effective; therefore .it must fall upon all fairly,' arid not, 03 tho voluntary (system. did,; let those pay who would; while • the rich' shirker went free. He looked vto the .National Government to see 'that this wsa done. Doing this, individual .cases must not be considered, but the needs of the Empire miust be the broad basis of any system of taxation which we adopted. This Parliament >vas, ho feltf sure]; Imperialistic enough to give tho Government the support to do thie.aod there was here a grand opportunity to do ite duty to the jEnnjM'r.e; butlet'ihem keep- away from things. Thero were war profits enough being mad© in this country to pay*, the £2,00b.000 - rocjuired without „ taxing anything eke. .Parliament would give > the Government the' necessary legislation. The question wias whether the Government , was prepared to impose tho necessary taxation. How much war profit was .comprised in the money paid for meat shipped' to the Imperial;a,uthorities,and he wanted td'know why any prpfit shooldl bo made- put* of;meat shipped to feed the men .who were fighting to •. keep; the; country where that meat was grown. The man' who was making xtnfair war profite must be mado■> to disgorge, j Mr submitted the following ! as ' points.; to . bo' considered by the Government: —(1) For farmers. within the'-- Empire, arranged -with necessary tariff facilities and' . means of!transport; {%) an.income tax, with heavy graduation for' tho ' war period, , however euch income is derived; . (3) to as'- , certain \ returns- for taxation assessment ...of; allwar profits f of. transport concerns;. -(4) banks were; trading as.- merchants /to; pay incomo. tax; (s):■ merchants to-take stock, and to have their' war profits determined and taxed with ' special relation to camp provis ion in g,; transport provisioning, and the, like, - exporters' of 'meat, butter, and cheeso to furnish returns showing the war Profits obtained, and then tho State to take its toll; (6) shareholders in companies to pay a war tax on the' individual profits-obtained from' shares, as is proposed in 1 - Australia; (7)' the graduated land tax to be considered a revenue-collecting tax, > and not a burst-ing-upl tat, with no differentiation between town: and' country. In conchision, Mr' Wilford congratulated' tho National Government, and said he wished it well, but he warned.it that his:motto was: "My country, right or wrong; but not my Gqvernment, right or wrong." , . ; Mr Parr said no statesman had to face a more.: difficult task in" framing his Budget than had; the: Minister of Finance, but it wufl a, courageous attempt to tno/fc ' position. ' The two leading principled to be notod right through the Budget were that the rich man wae made to pay, and the small farmer and the worker were treated with absohito fairness. He congratulated the- late Minister of Finance.;on the sound, condition in which ho left the finances of the country, and then proceeded 1 to say that he deemed the proposed. duty of 50 per. cent. ' on enemy goods as altogether insufficient: 'For. the, last. 2® years wo had been continuing -a false policy ,in buying German goods, sendin" our sovereigns to Berlin to enable that country to wrest tho trident of the seas from Britain. That, must stop, ■ as ho believed it would when Germany got tho* smashing defeat she deserved.,. The 50 per cent, on tho graduated tax was perfectly fair, as it. did not hit the small .settler or. , the moderately rich man. On the dther' hand the man who was making war profits was going to bo caught in two nets. Ho would pay under both the land and incomo , tax.\, He was, therefore,, not on the soft cushion many people supposed. The single increase in the ; income tax would, he thought, bo paid'by the men with big inr comes, and in finding £551,000 of the taxa» tion the income taxpayers were doing pretty welL It 'wag only just that (someone else should find the balance. Tho tax on the income, from the land would not be -paid by the small farmor, but, again, it would be-paid by the squatter. Ho instanced oases of .small farmers whom tho exemptions would tree from this : tiixation , altogether, ; from ', whidh- he argu>Jd . that not one email farmer in 20 would pay tax on income from. land. It. was th«. large' land owner/ making a large ' income from his ! land, who Would pay. Some people, would ! say that S this f was quite right, but, personally, ho thought such a man ,was already sufficiently ha,rd hit. ,The Post and Telegraph duties, which were estimated to produce £310,000. he generally approved as being perfectly fair. The increases in railway revenue were also on t3ie whole fadr, but he objected to the., tax on minora! 1 oils, which at least Should be reduced from 4d to 2d • per gallon. The proposed stamp duty of '5s on mortgages was objectionable, as was also the relaase fee . of lfts. On the other hand ho considered that picture theatres and all * forms of amusement should have been asked to pay_ their quota. In ■ooncludihg, Mr Parr said there was' rib doubt that the coiintrv could boar tho necessary taxation. It might have been different' had this Budget teen brought down after-10 years of depression instead of after 10 years of, prosperity. ,He was oonfident that we could find the two millions required, and more, if necessary, Mr WITTY moved the adjournment of the debate at 9.10 p.m. Mr M'OOMBS protested aguinst the debate being adjourned beforo anyone but a suoporter of the Government had spoken.

The procedure was, he thought, without predecent in the history of the land Parliament, r . The PRIME MINISTER explained that the prccedure to adjourn after two speeches had been delivered was quite usual. v Mr M*CO]yißS: Yes, when both • sides were represented. Only supporters of the Government have spoken - to-night. Mr I hope the whole: House is supporting the National Government. The motion that the debate be adjourned was then \ put and challenged by Mr M'Combs, who, however, did not foroe it to a, divnsion, and the .House rose at 9.15 p.m.