THE BUTTER TAX.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1916, Page 4

THE BUTTER TAX.

TJPHELD BY SUPREME COURT, By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Nov. 8. The decision of the Supreme Court upholds the validity of the Order-in-Council purporting to regulate the, export of butter under certain conditions. The Chief Justice dissented from the judgment of Justices Edwards and Chapman, In <hc course of his dissenting judgment, Sir Robert Stout said" that surely Parliament did not mean tc abrogate Its constitutional practice and destroy the constitutional system regarding taxation. He disagreed with the contention that the Govenior-in-Coimcil could delegate his power to the licensing authority. Such a thing would mean the destruction of that liberty which ou« ancestors had won for us through many trials and. tribulations, Einally, he considered that the money rained by the butter-fat tax was Crown money, and could only be disposed of as Parliament decided. Justices Edwards and Chapman ruled that the Order-in-Council waa" valid, that the charge was not a tax, and that the powers conferred on the exoenfive wer« fairly itcognised.