WIZARDRY OF FIGURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 198, 10 November 1927, Page 1

WIZARDRY OF FIGURES

SIR JOSEPH WARD IS HAPPY WHAT PETROL TAX MEANS (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Rcpurttr.) WELLINGTON, Wee :e-day. No one in the House of Representatives enters into discussions involving mathematica cxlcua tions and quotations of figures with greater zest than the R*. Hor Sir Joseph Ward, member for Invercargill. Dealing with tables, and jujtgl . with millions, is a happy diver, i^.. Sir Joseph, but sometimes Vis :'.g r cause speakers who follow him. to scratch their heads in perplexity. After the member for Invercargill had dealt with the amount of motor taxation in New Zealand during the debate on the Motor Spirits Taxation Bill this evening, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, found himself unable to agree with Sir Joseph’s contentions. Sir Joseph had been looking up some figures relating to the proportion of cars in New Zealand to the population, and found that there Were 110,000 cars and 25,000 motortrucks in the Dominion, equal to about one in ten of the population. There were about 150,000 people in New Zealand, including children, interested in the ownership of motor-vehicles. Last year New Zealand imported 45.000,000 gallons of motor spirit which, with the tax of fourpence a gallon, would yield about £750,000. Capitalised it would pay interest on £15,000,000 of borrowed money at 5 per cent., and in five years on £75,000,000. TO SAVE LANDOWNERS Here they were discussing this matter as though it were a mere trifle, continued Sir Joseph, and yet it was only one of three taxes which the House in its wisdom proposed to put on motorists. There was the tyre tax amounting to £IBO,OOO, annual licence fees £ 350.000, and the proposed petrol tax of £750,000. Last year the Government put increased duty on motorcars yielding £400,000. and, with duty, licence fees and tyre tax again, it would mean that in the last two years the House had been asked to provide for £2,700,000 to be put on the industry in taxation. The Government was doing this to save the landowners and public bodies from paying for road maintenance. Were 150,000 people, including children, to be the only people called on to provide money for the new system of road-making? Would it not be better to borrow a million a year and pay five per cent interest to the people of the country, without murdering them by way of taxation? MR. COATES PUZZLED Mr. Coates was unable to ic ': .v Sir Joseph’s financial deductions, v. i h*said were quite incorrect rd, * . . Mr. Coates’s benefit, Sir Joseph v . iven permission of the House Pj reiterate his statement that if continued for five veaxs, the £750,000 would paj on £75,000,000. Mr. Coates was still sceptical. f don’t pretend to be a wizar i o? fio-i roe he said, “but I will never believe that.” Sir Joseph: If you are not a wizard of finance you have to remember via : you are the man who gets hi igs done. ; (Laughter.)