WAR TAXATION.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13873, 15 September 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAR TAXATION.

(From "'The Colonist), 1' Aug. 2-S.) Wiiii.k it would be impossible' to overemphasise the necessity for public and pj-ivate prudence and economy while the outlook is as uncertain as it is now and must remain for a considerable time 3 there is equal reason for the cauticn sounded by Sir Joseph Ward against the application of the principles of economy in a way. that would enhance rather than alleviate the aoutencss of the domestic situation of the Dominion. We have no patience with the "Business as usual" cry which was dinned into the cars' of the people of the Old Country at the beginning of ,tho war until it was almost ay the national motto. At i\ time when nothing could be as usual, \vhen there was a paramount necessity for the whole energies of the nation being concentrated on the task of grappling with the obligations Britain had undertaken in respect to herself, her Allies, and the civilised world, the sentiment of the people could hardly have found a more unfortunate expression in the eyes of the allied nations whose territories were being ravaged by war in its worst form, nnd who could not be expected to place the intended interpretation upon the axiom. At this end of the world, however, the rendering of onr best service to the Empire now and in the future requires that the enterprises and. development cf the Do-1 minion to the utmost of its producing power should proceed during the war with the least possible interruption, and to suspend or curtail necessary public works and multiply unemployment in a mistaken conception of prudence and economy would -only be to diminish the usefulness of. the country as a unit in the great struggle. Coming to the taxation proposals,, the cost •of the war to tho Dominion, to be made up from additions to tho production of the existing scheme cf taxation, is in the neighbourhood of two iriillions per annum. This sum, or a great portion of it, is to be regarded as .a- permanent burden as far as thin generation is concerned, and it should bo recouped from sources which will bear an additional impost with the least disturbance of economic conditions, or in other words the burden should as far as possible be placed in the quarters where it will be least felt. While a large section of tho community is already finding itself living under oppressive conditions in. consequence o£ the war, there a.re other sections which are benefiting materially by enhanced values of products. It is an eminently sound principle that this section should make- a substantial contribution to the financial.requirements •of the country, and on the whole it has been let off lightly. The application of the income tax to income deriTed from the produce of land is estimated to produce a quarter of a million, and will in the main constitute a. diroet tax on war profits, besides remedying an anomalous position, which has hitherto exempted such income from ..taxation. In other directions the new proposals tap sources less suitable; for taxation for war purposes which must be maintained for a long period. We are--r:ot enamoured for instance of the increases in the post and telegraph rates and receipt and cheque duties, 'which will fall mainly upon the commerdal codit. innnity, already sustaining a multitude •of calls. These seem 'to -us'the-least

conunendable of tho .proposals, which apart from them are generally 'speaking unexceptionable, though it could be wished that the effort to distribute tho burden with due regard to conditions .of those upon whom it falls had in some respecte been carried further.