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FEDERAL FINANCE,
Industry Being Crushed by Taxation,
Estimates and Surpluses.
"Mon," wrote Aristotle long aeo, Is the hardest of all animals to
govern."
From the vast and evcr-urovvlng amounts spent by his Bevcn Govern-
ments, a philosopher might be led to conclude thal the Australian
variety of man is particularly hard to govern.
1 But .the philosopher would he wrong. The vvu.V in which the taxpayer
has co far suffered these exactions shows that he is a remarkably
patient animal.
Tuero nie signs, howevci that the)
straws latelv added to his barden aro I
breaking tho taxpavcr's back Mut-i
terings of íevolt aro heard Bankers
and others concerned ill industry arc
pointing out that by the heavy burdens '
placed on enterprise the Governments,
Federal and State, with New South
Wales as a lending offender, are killing
the goose tha h_as laid so many solden
eggs Tho position has been clearlj
put bj tho chairman of directors uf the
Bank of New bouth Wales (Ali Tnev-n
Buckland) He saiti recentlv -
' Tt is difficult to see how the buojancv
of the market can be »regained, ana pro
per confidence restored, until there is
evidence of genuino endeavour on the
part of our governing bodies to net
wiitin their incomes to endenvcur to
lessen their obligations, instead of ever
rnd alwavs increasing them
"The fate of this magnificent conti
r.ent of Australia rests more on the
lcalif-atior of this fact, and on genuine
effoit to an est waste than on ne-
tting else Our burden of taxation
is alreadj making its weight very pro-
nounced ana operating adversclj to
enterprise "
It cannot be said that there aie
many signs of any earnest endeavojr on
the part of Governments, Federal or
State, to lessen their obllgatlonj If
troj lit« witt t their Incomes, ,t 13
usually by consistently under estimating
their revenue AVhen that happens
Ministers do not reduce taxation, in
stead, they look roland foi new vvavs of
spending the surplus which thej should
not have And they always lind thom
In 1922-23, for instance, the Com-
monwealth Treasury waa £5,177,885 out
in its estimate of the revenue li e\
pecteel £58,657,000, and it re oivcd
¿03,834,385
It looks as if this j car s estimate
?were going to bo lust as fal out Al-
ready the Customs revenue for the
financial yeal is £2,418,239 over the
amount which tho Treasurer expected
to receive from that source for the lirst
five months If the lest of the jear ii
in pioport or, the Customs revenue
alone will show a surplus ot nearls
£5,000 000 for the current ttnancial year
OATER £25 A HEAD IN TAXATION'
If that proves to be the case the
Commonwealth will have an accumulat-
ed surplus of £10,000 000 or more at the
end of the jem, unless it contrives to
i spei d a great deal mole than it had
| proposed to do
I The way in winch Ino accumulated
surplus has piled up during the last
few vears is shown bj tho following
I figures giving the Commonwealth sur-
plus at the end of each year - 1919
1920, £3 532,058, 1920 21, £5,«24,806, 1921
22, £6,018,327, 1922-23, £6,408,424
It has been estimated that by the
end of 1023-1921 the accumulated sur-
plus would he onlv £7,428,574 But in
makin - that calculation the revenue
corns tj nu been greatly undci cs
limited i
While Government should live with
in then incomes it is not the business !
of i Go ornaient to extort, and to go j
on extorting from the taxpavers fal I
more mone than it needs to carrj on I
the business of government j
Tnc Commonwealth has done more
than carrv on the legitimate business of
Government It has foi instance
dropped £600,000 of the taxpavers monov i
nto the last three fruit pools I
But even so it has taken from the
pockets oí the taxpajors manj mi'lions
which it did not «eoci TI is moncj has
been withdrawn from productive in-
du st rj
Instead of taking »11 these millions,
th& Commonwealth could have made
far greater reductions than it did in the
income tax, and so hu«o relieved the
taxpavor
Last yeni the Commonwealth raised
in revenue £63 834,88') and the State
of New South Wales £36,178,000 Ihe
taxpajers of New South Wales con-
tribute ovoi ii. pel cent, el the reve-
nue of the Commonwealth Therefore,
they paid to the Commonwealth and to
the State over £60 000 000
That means that ovcrv man woman
and child in New South Wales io paj mg
on an average over £25 a head to the
two Governments Can it be wontleicd
that taxation is a vety hoavy burden
Next year the State s "Economy" Gov
crament pioposes to take £36 825,000 out
of the pockets of the taxpavors and the
Commonwealth a modest £00,749,000
It is almost certain that the Com
monvvcalth will take sevc-al millions
more than that So fal the indications
are that the State leventie will also bo
above the estimate } et no hope of anj
relief vvorthj of the name is held out to
the taxpavcr
There ia nothing aotomshing in tro
fart that business men and financiers
considti that the breaking point io not
far off
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