RATHER ON DOWN GRADE

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1930, Page 11

RATHER ON DOWN GRADE

AN OVER-TAXED COUNTRY MR.' WILKINSON UTTERS WARNING OBJECTION TO BUDGET PROPOSALS (By Wire- -Parliamentary Reporter.,) Wellington, Last Night. A warning to the Government not. to go too far in imposing taxation, which he felt was already nearing breaking point, was made by Mr. C. A. Wilkinson .(Egmont.) in the House of Representatives to-day. , “I take the greatest exception to the Government’s present taxation proposals,” said Mr. Wilkinson. “We are rushing head-on into heavy, weather, and the idea tnat taxation should be gathered up without stint and that there is an unlimited field for the levy of' taxes 1 - dispute • strongly. Taxation should always be as light' as ■ possible. People should never be taxed to a great-er-extent than'is absolutely necessary. Ono thing is certain,' that we aid’going to have a very 1 large surplus on the ■ Government’s i estiniates.” ■ ■. ' Reform voices; Hear,'hear!

“I want to - urge the-Government if possible to reduce the’ taxation some-, what and not to go on piling it up year by year.” ' -•' ; " ■ He went on to show that Ntew Zealand was already a very heavily' taxed country. In 1929 the people paid -!£l2 4s 2d per head of population/-’bit £lo' He 2d including local taxes, In Australia'jgem ■ era! taxes'amounted to ”£l4 lir'7dj ’and in Great Britain'the taxation Yvas ;: £Ls la id per head. Apparently-the Gov? eminent had adopted the'''daisy method •of raising revenue by means 'of taxing the people. ■ It was effectiii'g' saving's ip hundreds' of thousands and '-seeking l ‘to bring in naillions extra' 'in taxation; He suggested the Government' ’should try to use the pruning' khifb in further directions and avoid ' extra ' ’'taxation. There were any amount of opportunities of doing that. "" ' ' ' HOW 'TO CUT DOWN.. EXPENSES Mr. W. E. Barnard.; How would you do it? ..Mr, Wilkinson: I suggest we should do without a prohibition poll. We could also do without mail subsidies to overseas shipping services. There is no sense in our paying that.. There were, added Mr. Wilkinson, many other similar items that could- be considered without the necessity for sacking men from the Public Service. “I am not hostile to the jGovernment ■by any means,” he said, “but I want to give them some friendly .advice. This continual heavy addition to taxation is something the country cannot stand. There is a limit to the capacity of the country to pay-taxes, and we ave reaching it now. I am sorry to find the United Government, which I came into .the House to support, is -doing far worse in that respect than its predecessor. 1 don’t care much whether I am in* the House or not, and I can vote as I like as an Independent, but I would point out that this is'a very serious time in the Dominion. We are not progressing as we should; we are rather on the down-grade, and we want to bring the country back to prosperity if we can.” A CONFESSION OF FAILURE. On every page, said Mr. Wilkinson, the Budget showed the hands of departmental heads, and he wished to protest against that policy. He did not think any previous Budget he could remember had been so freely discussed. It was practically a confession of failure on the part of the United Government to carry out its pre-sessional promises. Probably circumstances had altered cases. In the case of the land tax Parliament was called upon to repeal -the Act of last session. That was surely a confession of failure. In. hie -opinion the estimated Customs revenue, was un-der-estimated, and in fact, some of the proposed revenue was a shot in the dark by the departmental. officials.. In the tobacco tax there, was no semblance of preference to Britain and, the New Zealand industry. would be penalised. ■ ,Mr. Wilkinson said that many articles of common every-day use'were subjected io increased taxation through the Customs, In many cases the increase in -duty amounted to much more than under the old 2 per cent, primage charge. Business would be decreased and trading would become stagnant. He expressed disappointment' that the Government had not made .an,alteration in respect to the wheat and flour duties. Discussing the land tax, die said tlie alteration from taxing .on capital to unimproved value would result in increased tax, and he urged the Government to see that the depreciation on buildings was fixed by law .andpot left at the discretion of the taxing officers. Ho asked whether the Government really believed farmers would ; benefit as the result of the petrol tax. increase. He had made an analysis, which showed that the farmer would-be called on to pay £91,000 more by Way of taxation.

Tho Hon. P. A. de la 'Perrelle: Petrol for farmers is free of duty, Mr, Wilkinson: Oh, yes, but that is a mere bagatelle. It was really the townsman who would be called on to pay the bulk of the petrol tax, and he would get no direct benefit whatever. If the Government was basing its proposals on the assumption' that the increased taxation would not bo passed on he thought it was building its house on sand.