TAXATION AND PROSPERITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 127, 1 June 1931, Page 6

TAXATION AND PROSPERITY.

SUGGESTION TO THE UNITED PARTY. (To the Editor.) The result of the Hauraki election, as f«r as the adverse vote for the United party lies is no doubt due to the unpleasant task this party performed in retrenchment. The soreness remains, and the benefit is to come. The patient is not yet grateful for the operation. It is my firm conviction that coupled with a reduction in expenditure, must come a reduction in taxation. Mr. Forbes has shown courage in the unpopular part of a necessary programme; he is entitled to the favour of the public ensured by a reduction of taxation. And he owes it to hie party, who have nobly followed his lead when it threatened political extinction. The necessity of reduced taxation is evident when the article in the financial columns of the "Star" some nights ago is considered. The article in question went to prove that the present depression is not due to a currency shortage, as so many of us believed. If that is so high taxation can be the only remaining cause sufficient to cause a worldwide slump. In effect, so much of labour and capital is absorbed by taxation that sufficient is not left to maintain living standards and capital replacement respectively. If the United party stands forward as one which aims at reduced taxation, even at a probable cost of reduced public service, it will have a distinct plank against Labour with its futile idea of increasing taxation so as to maintain wages at an impossible standard. The party would then be maintaining the Liberal standard from Gladstone's time onward, and its sympathisers who appreciate its bold and necessary course in reducing wages would feel that our party had some tangible benefit to offer the public as a quid pro quo. LIBERAL.