NEW TAXATION PROPOSALS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1929, Page 9

NEW TAXATION PROPOSALS

PROTEST AT DUNEDIN. MORE ECONOMY URGED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. A strong protest against the proposed scheme of increased taxation, both in regard to the Customs tax and land tax, was . voiced at a meeting of the Farmers’ Union to-day. A remit was passed urging on the Government the necessity of eliminating the deficit in the Budget by reducing expenditure in Government departments. The mover, Mr. E. H. Murrey, stressed the alarming rate, at which national expenditure was increasing, and said the prin-' ciple of increased taxation at this juncture of the country’s career was all wrong. ■ The super-tax on land was also made the. subject of a remit protesting against. its imposition until a scheme of land classification was adopted to .facilitate the cutting up of laYge properties for closer settlement. A further remit was carried unanimously in which the Dominion president of the union (Mr, J. W. Polson (M.P.), in view of a statement made by him in the House on the tariff question, was asked to bring the union’s point of view before Parliament, that point of view being contained ' in two remits passed by the Dominion conference, one urging a steady reduction in tariffs, and the other asking that no alteration in tariffs be made until the whole question was reviewed by a competent tribunal, not a Ministerial or Parliamentary committee, but a body of independent authorities. ■ bj DANNEVIRKE FARMERS’ VIEWS. Dannevirke, Last Night. The Budget taxation proposals were . discussed at a meeting of farmers convened by the Farmers’ Union to-day, about 25 being present. Various views were expressed, some being antagonistic . to the proposals, others approving th© super-tax. Others again maintained that the farmer between the big and the little man would bear the brant of the taxation. ; ’ A motion was passed recommending . that mortgage exemption be retained at £10;000, and another that provision be made giving those on whom taxation bears too heavily the option to appear before some tribunal with the Commissioner of Taxes as chairman, such tri- ; bunal to have power, if- necessary ’in cases of hardship, to afford relief.