UNFULFILLED PROMISES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22774, 7 July 1937, Page 15

UNFULFILLED PROMISES

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT LARGE INCREASE IN TAXATION [BY TELEGRAPH—OWX CORRESPONDENT] HASTINGS, Tuesday "There are three classes of people who have been badly let down by the Labour Government," said the Hon. Adam , Hamilton, Leader of the Opposition, in an address at Waipnkurau last night. "One is the class that believed in social credit; the second is that which ac- " ceptcd the Labour Party's promise to watch the interests of the B class radio stations, and third is that class of people who supported the Labour Party thinking they would get rid of the sales tax." When the Labour Party took office, - said Mr. Hamilton, every department of State was in credit. They could have liquidated the sales tax out of their anticipated surplus and still had some money over, but instead of abolishing the sales' tax they had collected £'582,000 more from this source than was collected in the previous year. The main fact emerging from the figures announced by the acting-Minis-ter of Finance, the Hon. P. Fraser, recently, was that taxation £5,385,000 in excess of that for the previous year had been collected. This amounted to a rise in taxation of 25 per cent.

A significant fact about the figures z was that there was 110 statement about public works expenditure, and how much had been added during the last financial year to the National Debt. Mr. Hamilton said he would not be surprised if round about £7,000,000 or £8.000.000 had been added to the National Debt during the financial year, and this at a time when the export income exceeded the average export income in the three slump years by £22.500.000. That, with borrowed moneys, made about £30,000,000 extra expenditure. It was wise, particularly in a boom time, for a country to live inside its income, but it could not bo said that New Zealand was living within its income to-dav.