Fortunes

Income Tax On Fiji

Collectors on the Warpath

THE subject of income tax in relation to Fiji mining transactions is likely to bulk large in the future and to give head aches to governments, taxation commis sioners and investors.

Some huge profits have been made al ready by speculators in Fiji gold mines; and the Government of Fiji, as well as taxation authorities in six Australian States and one Commonwealth, are busily sharpening their carving knives.

Fiji extracts a five per cent, gold royalty: but only one Fiji gold mine on the Tavua field has yet reached production. In con sequence, the public revenues have not benefited much from the new gold industry.

Fortunes have been made out of Fiji gold, but they have been made by speculators in shares; and share speculators notoriously are gentlemen who show a curious shy ness in sharing their gains with govern ments.

Fiji also imposes a modest rate of in come tax; and one can imagine the Fiji Government biting its fingernails and de ciding that, since it cannot yet get a royalty on Fiji gold, it will get a share of the profits by way of income tax.

Such startling stories of fortunes made out of the Tavua field have been published that one may be sure that every taxation department in Australia is on the alert, and one hears that already the net has been spread wide. It is said, for instance, that the hounds of taxation are in full cry after Messrs. Theodore, Wren, Packer and Co., who are supposed to have cleaned up phenomenal sums out of the Emperor enterprise.

Goldmines speculators are notoriously shrewd and downy birds and it can be taken as certain that, even as they were assembling their rich profits, they were making plans in regard to taxation. It is reported, for instance, that one of the leading figures of the Tavua developments, although for many years an Australian citizen, has made plans to escape punitive taxation by obtaining domicile in Fiji, and by registering his Fiji enterprise in an even more distant part of the Empire.

Some of the gentlemen in the Fiji gold mining game are chuckling over the case of a young Englishman, who literally fell into a fortune and then decided to make a visit to London. He went off with the clear understanding that he was to return to Fiji and he took his fortune with him.

He has not returned; and his address is uncertain; and the Fiji Government has not collected income tax on a mere £50,000 or so.

Incidentally, if and when the Tavua goldfield reaches big production, the ques tion of whether there is to be a gold royalty only, or a gold royalty plus income tax, is likely to become a really live ques tion. Under present conditions it looks as if bona fide Australian investors in Fiji goldmines will have to pay about four dif ferent taxes—namely, Fiji gold royalty.

Fiji income tax, Australian State income tax, and Commonwealth income tax. Look ing at it from that angle one is inclined to say that the investor in Fiji goldmines is entitled to every penny legitimate, or near legitimate, that he can get out of the en terprise.

Mr. George Kenneth Kingston, an Eng lishman, who had been mining and pros pecting for gold for many years on the Morobe field, died at Wau on September 3.

Matron A. S. Williamson left Sydney for Misima Island, Papua, by the Septem ber Macdhui, for the Methodist Missionary Society.

Mr. Cecil Henry Penrice died in Suva Colonial War Memorial Hospital on Sep tember 2, as the result of injuries sus tained in a motor-cycle accident. He was 6l years of age. Going to Fiji from Eng land in 1894, he took up banana planting at Samabula. Later he was plantation overseer for 10 years on Verata Estate.

After the Great War Mr. Penrice engaged in the dairying industry at Rewa, until the 1932 floods destroyed his stock.