The consideration of the Report stage of the Finance Bill
began on Tuesday. The question of the recommittal of the tobacco clauses having been deferred by consent, Mr. Ruther- ford moved the recommittal of Part I., dealing with the new Land Value Duties, on the ground that, of the hundred and thirty-nine Government amendments, many raised substantial issues demanding discussion under Committee conditions; but Mr. Lloyd George refused to accept the amendment. He stated in reply to a question that he hoped to lay before the House in the next few days a revised estimate of the financial results of his land taxation, which he had previously promised to bring forward before the Report stage. In the ensuing debate, in which various amendments proposed by the Opposition were rejected by large majorities, an interesting discussion was started on the question of the principle of increment by Mr. Harold Cox. Mr. Cox was supported on the Liberal benches by Mr. Bertram, and was answered by the Attorney-General, who was reduced to contending that Mr. Cox's arguments, if pushed to their logical conclusion, amounted to a declaration that no property should be taxed. Mr. Ridsdale, another Liberal M.P., also condemned the Chancellor's finance as improvident, asserting that, although this year the State would only receive 225,000 from the Increment-tax, in certain cases it might, in conjunction with the Death-duties, work out so as to mulct a property to the extent of 47 per cent.
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