RELIEF OF DISTRESS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 87, 13 April 1933, Page 8

RELIEF OF DISTRESS

TAX ON LOTTERY PROFITS. SOCIAL WORKERS' VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Several problems affecting the welfare of relief workers were discussed at a conference held to-day at the request of the New Zealand Smith Joy-spreaders (inc.). The Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, presided, and there were present representatives of local bodies and relief organisations in various centres. On the motion of the Smith Family a resolution was passed expressing to the Governor-General heartfelt appreciation of His Excellency's action in instituting the national relief fund. A motion to set up a national relief council was discussed, and lost. It was decided that it was desirable that societies for the relief of distress should become incorporated. . The conference endorsed the principle of taxing art .union profits for raising money for the relief of distress. There was considerable opposition. The Mayor of Lower Hutt stressed that art unions provided only a precarious method of raising money, and said the source of the funds should be as certain* as taxation. The reply was made to this that the organisations had to rely on voluntary contributions,' which were by no means reliable. . »

The original motion, that the proceeds from six consecutive art unions be used for the alleviation of distress was lost by one vote, but an amendment, that a substantial tax be imposed on • art union profits,-was carried -without debase.