CO129-250 - Acting Governor Barker - 1891 [6-8] — Page 688

speaking on behalf of the Sharebrokers' Association, that the brokers have long been yearning to be taxed. The Government will neglect a great opportunity of it does not promptly step in and satisfy their desire. A licence fee of $500 a year, paid by sixty brokers, would produce $30,000, which would be a very welcome addition to our revenue. And if Mr. FRANCIS has been correctly instructed the brokers could well afford to pay. The learned gentle- man tells us that shares sold forward probably change hands from fifty to a hun- dred times before settling day, Let us sup- pose the shares are of $100 value; the brokerage for selling is half-a-dollar and for buying the same amount, making a total charge on each transaction of one dollar. If the shares change hands a hundred times the brokerage comes to $100 on each $100 share. What advantage can an investor get out of a free market of that kind ? Possibly there is soneexaggeration in the statement of the case, but if so it comes from the Sharebrokers' Association, not from us. Allowing, how- ever, for a considerable reduction, the oc- cupation of a broker must evidently be a very lucrative one and those following it could well afford to pay something for the privilege. We are probably well within the mark when we say that at the height of the share gambling mania not less than $50,000 a month was paid in brokerage, and the pressure of this huge charge on a small community has gone a long way to intensify the existing depression, The brokers are not of a grasping disposition. however; they are anxious to contribute sub- stantially to the revenue, and their offer ought to be accepted by the Government in the generous spirit in which it is made. They also want their profession purified by being subjected to regulations made by the Government, and on this point also their wishes ought to be complied with. We do not think this will have much influence in checking gambling, but as it certainly can do no harm we say let the remedy be applied for what it worth, Another vomody sug- posted is that all contrasts aloned i far the

concerned" should be rendered null and void. This, as we gather, has the support of the brokers, and it seems well calculated to diminish gambling, and especially to strike at it in its most pernicious forta, namely, where one of the parties is trading on information obtained by virtue of his position and which is inaccessible to the other party; this may indeed be called Au Ordinance playing with loaded dice. carrying this suggestion into effect, though it would not strike at the root of the evil so effectually as Mr. KESWICK's proposed Bill, would go a long way towards lopping its most objectionable branches.

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