FIVE PER CENT. EXTRA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 759, 4 September 1929, Page 7

FIVE PER CENT. EXTRA

PRIMAGE DUTY EFFECT WILL BE PASSED ON (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. That the increase of 1 per cent, in the primage duty would mean an increase of 5 per cent, in the price of goods to the consumer was the opinion advanced in the House of Representatives today by Mr. A. M. Samuel (Thames) during the closing portion of his budget debate speech. First of all Air. Samuel gave an example of the effect of the extra duty on the price of a contractor who was putting in a water supply for the township of Papatoetoe, near Auckland. Pie said that because of the primage increase the contractor, who was obtaining supplies from a certain hardware firm in Auckland, would have to charge £IOO extra to the local authority for the work. This cost would be passed on to the ratepayers, who would have to pay. Then the argument was advanced that the duty would not be passed on. Mr. Samuel proceeded to illustrate his main point by reporting a conversation that had taken place between tw'o merchants, one of a them a big wholesale man. The wholesale merchant had said that the primage duty was too small to pass on, and that his firm had decided to make it 21 per cent. A Voice from the Labour Benches: Profiteer! Air. Samuel continued that the 2J per cent, would be passed on to the consumer by the retailer, so that there ■would be an increase of 5 per cent. He claimed that this increase would be carried out by other firms, so that instead of paying the £300,000 extra as computed in the Budget, the people of New Zealand would pay an extra million and a-half. EXTRA FOR FERTILISER There was an example already in that a big firm issued a circular saying that farmers would have to pay 2s 6d extra a ton on fertiliser. The farmer could not pass this amount on. Everybody knew that. When the Reform Party had left office, it had left a free breakfasttable with the exception of chicory, of which the to?.al amount imported into New Zealand came to a value of £S only last year. A Alember: "What about cocoa? Mr. Samuel said that there were other drinks besides cocoa which did not come into the country free, and that it might be better to get off that subject. The extra duty should be imposed upon those who were best able to bear it. He quoted from the United Party manifesto to the effect that the party advocated an adjustment of the tariff so that the cost of living might be reduced. A Labour Alember: What are you quoting from? Air. Samuel (with a grin): I think this must have been written with a goose’s quill. AMERICAN CARS He went on to advocate extra duty on American motor-cars, saying that out of £1,900,000 worth of motor-cars imported last year, American cars were responsible for £1,730,000 of that sum. No one would be hurt by an extra duty on American cars. He advocated an extra duty on foreign films, saying that in Australia the tax on American films was 3d a foot., aDd that in New Zealand it was Id. An extra penny a foot would mean an increase in revenue of £200,000. Together with extra taxation on American cars, the sum of £400,000 extra would come in, which would wipe off the deficit, allowing for the payment of £156,000 to be made for interest.

Regarding unemployment, Air. Samuel said that the problem could be solved only by a combined reading and land development scheme. These operations should go hand in hand. Air. AV. J. Broadfoot (Waitomo): Why didn’t you do it? You had the opportunity. Air. Samuel said that the member for Waitomo was always making stupid interjections. Now he asked why he (Mr. Samuel) had not done so, because he had had the opportunity. He had not had any opportunity. He might have in the future, and then he w'ould do it. He thought that the Alinister of Public Works, tbe Hon. E. A. Ransom, was favourable toward such a schema. The Minister was doubtless handicapped by finance, and on relief works men were put on and others put off. It was a “put and take” policy. There was no other way of solving unemployment to his way of thinking than that he had mentioned. He urged that every clay road should be metalled and not left for years unmetalled, to be washed down the hillsides.