"MORE MONEY."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 105, 6 May 1929, Page 10

"MORE MONEY."

GOVERNMENT'S NEED. STEEPER LAND TAX? PRIME MINISTER'S HINT. DETAILS FOR PARLIAMENT. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") HAWERA, this day. First the Minister of Lands, a few weeks ago, and now the Prime Minister, on Saturday night, in Hawera, have hinted' that "the Government intends to increase or revise taxation. Mr. Forbes .said the subdivision of big estates, .was .a matter .of steeper taxation, as the landowners could not be forced. The Prime Minister said, "There must be more money produced by taxation," I but he did not wish the idea to go abroad that there would be more taxation. No country could continue with its finances on the wrong side. He had every reason to hope,- however,- that he had certain proposals • that' Would be satisfactory. He mentioned, among instances, that Customs. revenue was short by a large amount ■ and said that if such leakages become chronic they would react against wli~t all. were interested in. At a later stage Sir Joseph Ward reverted to taxation. He said they were bound to alter taxation to some extent at the next session of Parliament. He would not discuss details until they had been placed before the House. "We must from some sections of the community extract more taxation than they are paying at the present time," he said. Not a few among the audience concluded that the Prime Minister had in mind a graduated land tax on the big landowners.