PROPOSED WAR TAX.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11332, 9 March 1915, Page 6

PROPOSED WAR TAX.

i OPINION IN CHRISTCHURCH.

MR BEAUCHAMP'S SCHEME APPROVE!)

Mr Harold Branch amp's scheme to impose a, war tax ot 1 ]*.-;r cent on imports and export:s is generally approved in Christ/.burch. financial men believe that it is sound, and several commercial and professional mo ». say that they feel ii, is fair to all classes., as it will make everybody bear the burden and. nobody hear ifc so heavily as to feel it.

Mr T. IP. Gibson, president of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, dis - cussing the scheme this morning, said that it had been practically suggested by the Chamber at >i, mooting last month. Tho principle to be observed was that the tax should tn 11 on the generous and' ungenerous alike, and that really ivo,s the. principle underlying a, surtax on imports and exports.

Tho tirsl. proposal placed heforo tho chamber, Mr Gibson explained', waft that tho tax should lie J«*vjo4 on a,ll sources of revenue- —imports, hind, income, beer. Customs, and so on, but' it was thought that it was not advisable : to commit the chamber to a. special line of taxation, and finally a telegram was sent to Mr Masse v urging the Government. ,to raise the war money by a, surtax on all available sources of revenue. Mr F. H. Pyne. honorary treasurer of the Poor of Great Britain. Ireland and Belgium Relief Committee, who also discussed the scheme, fiaid that he thought, it was an ad'mirablo one in all respects. He felt that it was better to levy the tax on exports and. imports alone than to include other sources of income. The proposal was fair in all respects- Mr Beauchamp knew much more about the problem than he did, and if that gentleman said, that a tex of 1 per cent would be sufficient, he was quite willing to accept the estimate. Dr Lsvinge, president of the committee. aaid that be was hardly able to express an opinion on the scheme, but if it yielded £500,000 a year, as Mr Beauchamp estimated, a substantia] fund would' be obtained. Dr Levinge stated that a conference on the question would be held in Wellington on "Friday, when, no doubt. Mr Beauchamp r s proposals would be dealt with. POSITION SHOULD BE FACED.

A well-known Chiistchurch merchant/, speaking to a. reporter this afternoon, said he had just read Mr Beauchamp's. suggestions with respect to the mij position of a war tax, lmt. although, he I fully approved of the proposal, inas- ; much as it. was necessary to impose i such a tax, be was altogether opposed ! to the suggestions made by the chair - j man of the .Bank of .New Zealand, | namely. that a tax of. one per cent ! should bo placed on all exports and | imports. Ha had not had time to go into the question to ascertain what amount would be derived from such, a tax, but he felt strongly that the ini cideneo would be unfair, since many j who are well able to contribute liberally ! would escape lightly, while others who | were not in nearly such a strong posij tion would be called upon to pa.v twice | over. If Mr Beauchamp's suggestions j were adopted by the Government and ; given legislative effect, there could be no question but the tax would bear most unfairly on s.OlllO classes of the community, as it would enable some of | the wealthiest people in the Dominion j to escape with paving but a tithe of the amount they should contribute to the revenue,- while others would be unjusty penalised. In his opinion the fairest tax to meet the. emergency | which has airisen would be to tax all | according to the extent of their posses- : sions, whether in the shape of monev ; on mortgage, merchandise, live stock 'or broad sores. Since the tax would j only be a, temporary one. 'be thought ; it was unnecessary to make it a pro- | gressive one, since the present, land tax applied in that direction, and he was xiflt in favour of imposing a class tax for a national purpose. Suppose ouo man owned property worth £IOOO and i another man property valued at ten times that amount, he thought it was but faar that the latter should pay ten times as much as the former. He failed to see how this would inflict any hardship on the man owning the larger amount of property: indeed, lie would go further and say that in. nine cases out of ten the larger propertyowner would feel tho tax much, less than would the smaller man, inasmuch as the former owner > would probably have a smaller -proportion of his money locked up in the business than would the man of greater wealth or greater possessions. Continuing, tie sneaker said that already the various Government Departments were in possession of all or nearly all the information necessary to enable them to ascertain with the greatest defmiteness the value of the property owned throughout lie Dominion, and consequently the task of collecting the tax would not involve any large amount of now machinery. He was sorry to see that the Government showed no initiative in connection with the whole crisis; inde'ed, be thoxight that the Government had shown deplorable weakness' and indecision in handling everything in connection with the wax, and. now. instead of boldly announcing its intention with, regard to financial matters it was hanging back, apparently hopeful that some miracle would happen that would extricate it from the unenviable position in which it finds itself. The position should be faced not in a iini.id manner but boldly, and without hesitation, and tho sooner the country was taken into the confidence of the Government the better it would be for the Dominion, since if the matter were hung up much longer and the people left in % ignorance as to the Government's intentions, there could be no doubt but the commerce oi the country would suffer. In a crisis such as the present, any evidence of timidity was fata), and already far too much hesitancy had been shown by those «,t the head of affairs. Ho thought that there were few in the country wlio would object greatly to special taxation to meet the emergency that had arisen, but the Government should place tile ■ tax oil the right shoulders, and lie for one thought that if the Government followed the lead that had been given by the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand it would make a serious mistake. Such a tax would severely harass many who are now in a struggling position, but a; ia.x in. which all were called upon to pay in exact proportion to their wea.lth or possessions would riot bear hardly on any 0114?»