TAXATION TRUTHS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 86, 11 April 1922, Page 8

TAXATION TRUTHS.

(To the Editor.l Sir, -Your sub-leader under the above title, will no doubt interest Mr. Massey to whom it is addressed. What you aiiti Mr. Asquith say is quite true: "The income tax is a tax on saving; it restricts enterprise." and also does all the other things that taxation, and especially heavy taxation, ever does. But we have ■mr debts to pay. and the Government to cany on; there is no surplus, and therefore our taxation is not excessive; it is i not more than enough to pay our way. ( But it is unbearable. What, then, cain .be done? The remedy is to spend less. In striving after that end the Government lessens salaries. It is true they »iiilet do so. but it is not enough, and the hardship may be too great, though it is certain that all wages must come down. The remedy adopted by the Government does not go far enough; they should stop spending on unnecessary vorks. You are not faultless iv this matter, and your morning contemporary is more guilty even than yourself. Between you. you have assisted the agitation to urge the expenditure of some millions on an electric scheme at Arapuni, when both you and your contemporary know quite well that no revenue can come from it for many years, and an adequate revenue probably never. What is true of Arapuni is true al all the electric schemes, the sites of which are far from large towns, and so on with some other public works. Let the Government stop expenditure on non-paying propositions, and we shall soon right ourselves. Just to stand by silently or approvingly when we carry on fish shops at a loss of £4000 or so a year, and act on similar methods when millions upon millions are involved, is to do what would bring any commercial undertaking to bankruptcy, and would inevitably bring anyone so acting under the jiains and penalties of fraudulent bankruptcy.— I am, etc.. J. H. UPTON.