PENSIONS RISE BY £2.000,000

Southland Times, Issue 23306, 16 September 1937, Page 6

PENSIONS RISE BY £2.000,000

HEAVIER TAXATION DEFENDED OPPOSITION ASKED TO REVEAL ITS PLANS (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 15. The increased taxation imposed by the Government last year was defended by Mr J. G. Barclay (Lab., Marsden) in seconding the Address-in-Reply motion in the House of Representatives tonight. “We have increased the amount paid out in pensions by more than £2,000,000,” Mr Barclay said, “and I would like to know what members of the Opposition propose to do about it in the possibility of their being returned to power. They talk about reducing taxation and it is fair to ask whether they would reduce pensions if they were in power.” Mr H. S. S. Kyle (Nat., Riccarton): You are not buying votes, are you?

“We have increased the income tax and reimposed the graduated land tax,” Mr Barclay added, “and we have heard a great deal about the crushing burden that has been placed on the people.”

Mr W. P. Endean (Nat., Parnell): It is the highest in the British Empire. “No one with an income below £2lO a year pays income tax,” said Mr Barclay, “and a married man with two children—the average family these days—does not pay tax if his income is under £360. That is not a crushing load, because he has almost £1 a day before he pays any income tax. A man receiving £5OO who has two children pays £l2 9/8, on £7OO the tax is £33 3/- and on £lOOO it is £7o'B/-. There is nothing crushing about those taxes/’ PAYMENTS FROM INCOMES Before the man with £2OOO a year went away to the Coronation, Mr ’Barclay added, he was asked to pay an extra £lO to help to pay pensions. From the man with £5500 a year who paid £1529 in tax an extra £2OO was taken. The Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton): They are mostly companies. Mr Barclay: I know quite a few individuals who pay that tax. A man with £lO,OOO a year paid £3936 in tax, Mr Barclay continued, and there were men with that income to be found in all the main cities, as well as Invercargill. Such a man had still over £6OOO left, but he had been asked to pay over £lOOO extra for pensions. Would members of the Opposition reduce that taxation and take away pensions? Mr H. G. Dickie (Nat., Patea): There are only seven men in New Zealand with incomes of £lO,OOO a year. “Independence means a lot to people who have been in poor circumstances,” Mr Barclay concluded, “and we are giving permanent invalids the same independence that the old Liberal Government gave to old age pensioners.”