FORESTRY AND INCOME TAX. 33 



The meaning of the foregoing clause will be better under- 

 stood by a reference to the Parliamentary Debates, but the 

 following short extracts from the official report may serve 

 the purpose : — 



Captain Bathurst, after expressing gratitude to the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer for moving such a generous clause, said : " . . . 

 With regard to Subsection (2) I understand that it is inserted 

 in response to an appeal made to the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer in Committee, and also yesterday, to exempt, 

 as far as possible, all new plantations from taxation. I 

 understand it will now be possible for any person who plants 

 land freshly with trees to take that portion of his estate and 

 treat it for the purpose of Income Tax as though it were a 

 separate estate altogether, and that if he elects to be taxed 

 under Schedule B in respect of the bulk of the estate it will 

 be possible for him to ask to be taxed under Schedule D in 

 respect of that portion of his estate. That is going a long way 

 to encourage landowners, as far as their means permit, to take 

 part with the State in afforesting a large area of land. . . . 



*' As regards Subsection (3), which is quite new as far as 

 this sort of property is concerned, it looks as if it might prove 

 to be a very valuable concession. What I want to know is this : 

 Supposing in any one year, owing to larch disease or serious 

 gales, a large amount of timber suffers loss or destruction, will 

 it be possible to bring into account the loss upon that timber, 

 after a careful valuation, as against a profit that may be derived 

 during the same period from timber that is felled, and has its 

 full commercial value.? If I read the Subsection aright, that is 

 what is contemplated, but it is a point upon which I should 

 like some guidance, because it is the sort of thing that happens 

 frequently. In a wind-swept country, where a good deal of 

 planting goes on, you may get a large portion of a 

 large plantation laid low in a single night. That happened 

 last March in many parts of the country. I want to 

 know whether in conditions like that, either the present 

 or prospective loss resulting from such abnormal conditions 

 can be brought into account in reckoning whether the tax- 

 payer is to be assessed up to the full value of the profits he 

 derives from the other parts of his woodlands.? ..." 



Mr M'Kenna in reply said: "... Subsection (2) enables 

 the tax-payer to treat a newly planted part of his woodlands^ 



VOL. XXXr. I'ART I. C 



