IF WORLD PRICES FALL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19455, 14 October 1937, Page 14

IF WORLD PRICES FALL

POLICY OF GOVERNMENT INSULATE THE COUNTRY STATEMENT BY MINISTER (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night The adjourned debate on the second reading of the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill was resumed in the House of Representatives to-night, when the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes (Nat. Hurunui) criticised the graduated land tax, saying that apparently the Government had no intention of revising this form of taxation, and dealing with the unfairness of its incidence. He considered that industries should be encouraged in the direction of lightening their burden of taxes, and contended that the hardship clause in the land tax had been ineffective in the past. The Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, said that if he were to read an old Hansard all night, he could not cover all the things the members of the Opposition had said in favour of the land tax in the past. Under the bill, the farmer would suffer no hardship. The Opposition had asked what the Government would do if overseas prices fell. What had the Opposition done when prices had fallen? he asked. Opposition members: You are dodging the point. Mr. Nash: Oh, no, I’m not. I have already explained that if oversea prices fell and affected the income of this country, we would insulate the country against the outside influences. Members of the Opposition knew that if they told the country what they would do during a fall of oversea prices they would never get back to the House to do anything. On a motion for the second reading being put to the House, it was forced to a division and carried by 42 votes to 16. On the motion of the Prime Minister the committee stages of the bill were deferred until to-morrow evening and the House rose at 10.36 p.in.