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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16194, 27 July 1918, Page 2

The statement made by the miners in support of their claim for a 20 per cent increase in wages will not arouse any enthusiastic support from the general public. The miners earn about £1 a day and work 240 days in the year. Without any alarming effort they can add £1 per week to their earnings, but they prefer to continue to work only two days out of three. The fact is that the 3000 men who work underground think they are in a strong enough position to exploit the public for their own benefit. The employers will not pay the increased wages, if they are granted, because they will pass the increase on to the public, and every working man who is not a coalminer will assist in paying the miners, and the increased price of coal will add to the cost of all articles manufactured in the Dominion. There seems no reason to suppose that the employers are making enormous profits, judging by the price of shares m coal mining enterprises, so it is not likely that they can be made to pay instead of the public. Assuming the rough accuracy of the above statements, it is difficult to see how the miners can he compelled to do their duty. It is practically impossible to import coal and equally impossible to find men to take the places of the miners. For the moment then the miners dominate the position, and it is difficult to see how to deal with them if they allow their greed to conquer their patriotism. The extension of the contract system of work in mines, the greater use of machinery in coal-getting, and the utilisation of water-power are all means of checking the miners’ monopoly, but none of these are immediately applicable. The tyranny of organised Labour is in fact quite as great as that or organised capital, and the only thread of hope rests on the fact that the majority of the miners are reasonable men, and may restrain the activities of those who, like the Bolsheviks, wish to destroy the whole of our social fabric, though they themselves would perish in the ruins.

In view of the strong criticism directed against Sir Joseph Word’s policy of issuing his war loans free- of income tax, the following by the financial editor of the .Sydney Morning Herald will ho read with interest. Speaking of the decision to make interest on future Commonwealth war loans liable to income tax, he says: Some difficulty will probably bo experienced in providing for the collection of the tax on tho interest on debentures. There will he no difficulty in collecting tax from the holders of inscribed stock, but with tbo holders of debentures tho case is different. The taxing authority can easily ascertain the holders of inscribed stock. The hooks at the Commonwealth Bank will reveal that information. But debentures are exchangeable without any formality, and no record is kept of their transfer, as they are payable to bearer. A man has a couple of thousand pounds’ worth of debentures returning interest to tho amount of £IOO, if the rate is 5 per cent. If the owner keeps those debentures in his own safe at home, or at a safe deposit, how can the taxing authority do anything else as the law at present stands but trust to his honesty in making a return, with his other income, of interest liable to income tax? If the bonds are on deposit or in safe custody with the bankers of tho holder and the hanker collects tho interest, then it would be possible, by legislation if necessary, to provide for bankers making a return of tbo interest they collect. This would throw a great deal of work on tho bankers, and by some might bo held to impair the confidence which should exist between banker and client. In Great Britain no difficulty is experienced in such a case. Tho tax is collected at the source and at tho highest rate. It is deducted before payment of the interest. If the highest rate is above the rate which is applicable to tho income of tbo holder that holder applies for a refund of tho amount overtaxed. In the case of small incomes made up largely of interest from, Government stock* collection at

the source entails some hardship, ns

tile receiver of the income is out of a considerable portion of that income, viz., the amount of tax overcharged, for some timo. The overcharge which is refunded may now amount to as much as 3s in tho £. A difficulty similar to that which will arise in the case of income tax collection has arisen in tho case of collection of probato duty. A man who holds a couple of thousand pounds’ worth of debentures dies. His widow takes those debentures into her possession. They are not mentioned in his will. Who is to say that they are not tho property of tho widow, and were not her property before the death of tho husband?