NEWS from one hundred years ago: TAXING THE RICH

The government, controlled by the conservative Reform Party, is putting a bill to parliament that will increase the rates of death duty. New Zealand death duties target the rich; anybody who dies with a small or middling sum of wealth is only taxed lightly. William Massey, prime minister, says that hiking death duties is not something his government would do in an ideal world but it must be done now because the postwar boom is ending, export prices are dropping and it is ‘necessary for us to strengthen the finances of the country.’ He stresses that ‘the additional burden is being placed on the large estates.’ After the bill is passed, anybody who dies worth £100,000 or more will have to pay 20 per cent of that wealth to the state. The average yearly wage in the workshops and factories of New Zealand is £177 for men and boys and £80 for women and girls. The new death duty is strongly backed by the Liberal Party. Josiah Hanan, lawyer and leading Liberal, says ‘it will make for a more equitable distribution of wealth.’ Sharing wealth fairly evenly is traditional Liberal policy. ‘This country,’ adds Hanan, ‘does not want an idle rich class, piling up capital at the expense of the general well-being.’ The Reform Party is willing to hike tax on the rich, even though they are the party of capitalists, because they know the electorate will not let them tax the working class. Thanks to the highly developed political awareness and political activity among New Zealand working people even a conservative government has limited elbow room when trying to safeguard the wealth of the wealthy.

The Dominion, 16 October 1920
NZ Yearbook (Chapter XX, Industrial Manufacture, Salaries and Wages)