TAXATION.

Wairarapa Age, 22 May 1928, Page 5

TAXATION.

MINISTER OF LANDS REPLIES TO CRITICS. Touching on questions of taxation when he spoke in Wellington the other day, the Minister of Lands (the Hon. A. D. McLeod) said that, like his colleogue, tho Minister of Finance, he was unrepentant regarding last year’s income tax adjustments. “That we were by the alteration going to affect a section from which we drew a great deal of political support,” he added, “was clearly understood. If sound evidence is required that democracy fails at its most vital point, it is ftiund in the argument that a party or government must refuse to legislate in directions which will offend its friends, no matter what it honestly believes. Apart from many indirect financial responsibilities as a result of the war, there is in this Dominion a responsibility of finding annually over £5,000,000 for war debt interest and war pensions alone—a responsibility which is very slowly reducing itself. If after thirty years of Liberal government it was considered equitable that a man with no family and in receipt of an income of, say, £5OO per annum, should pay £5 by way of income tax, how can it be argued that in 1927, after the Great War, a man similarly situated should pay only £5 ss. per annum in tax? Similarly, how can a man with, say, three children, who was apparently willing to pay £5 per annum tax in 1914, object to paying a 12s. increase over tho 1927 tax of £1 6s. 3d? I have discussed the various increases in the schedule from £3OO to £2OOO taxable incomes with several of my personal and political friends, and viewed in the light of post-war taxation as against pre-war, I have not found one able to say that considering what has Intervened in those years, and compared with the taxation burden all are being asked to carry, they have many, it any grounds, for complaint. Should my remarks of this evening be published, a budget of letters Signed Paterfamilias,” “Civil Servant,” Cost of Living,” etc., will probably tollow, pointing out percentage increases. Those of us in the political game know all about such letters, there are numbers of quite respectable members of society who will write Up tor a consideration, anything If an income taxpayer paid five shil--1®27, and fifteen shillings in 19 8 the percentage would of course be 300, but in fact it would just about pay for one seat at the opera, or for a very mild flutter on the gee-gees.”