Broadening the Taxation

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3799, 4 June 1908, Page 3

Broadening the Taxation

London, June 3

In the House of Commons Mr Hardy's amendment favouring the broadening of the basis of taxation was rejected by 367 to 124. Continuing the debate Mr Bonar Law said nobody proposed prohibitive duties on imported goods with a view to manufacturing everything ourselves, whether they were able to compete with their rivals or not. He was not a Protectionist in the crude sense. The Patents Act which withdraws a patent unless the articles are made here desired to give manufacturers and workmen preference in the Home market enabling them to compete better with their foreign rivals there. He rebutted Mr George's criticisms on the German finances. The fact was that unification and centralisation, were not complete and particular taxes were only possible with the consent of the different German states. We should know what that meant, if we had Home Rule all round. He emphasised the fact that Germany was spending borrowed money in her naval construction. The Board of Trade figures showed that the rise in wages in Germany for the two decades preceding 1900 exceeded any other country's, and there had been a great fall in the cost of livingMr Winston Churchill replied that since a patent was a restriction on free trade the Patents Act was a reversion to free trade. He contended that the taxation of food and manu facutrers were together. The Government protested against so broadening the taxation as to make it press more heavily on the threadbare shoulders of the poor.