WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 8

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

POINTS FROM THE PRESS.

MORE POPULATION WANTED

This country could comfortably carry fifteen million inhabitants, but possibly ten millions could live at a higher standard than we live to-day. As a more modest beginning, however, we might aspire to a population of five millions, and this total should be reached in the shortest possible time. By natural increase our population, at the present rate, will not double under 40 years.- Assuming such a rate of increase to be a continuing one, !it would take about (i.~> years—that is, till the year 2000 A.D.—before our population reached five millions. There is, however, some doubt whether we will maintain our present natural rate of increase. New Zealand needs a greater population and needs it earlier than our excess of births over deaths will supply it. To gain rapidly we require a scientific system of immigration. Is it beyond the scope of our statesmanship to absorb r>o.ooo immigrants a year? America once absorbed a million a year. A greater population would bring many advantages. Economically, one of the greatest would be the lightening of our enormous debt burden, both national and local body. Racially we would have a more just claim—and more strength—to hold a white New Zealand. Culturally, a population of five millions would enable us to develop the intellectual side of life to a degree impossible in cur present sparsely-settled state. Hie Dominion's first need it? a proper realisation of the dangers of our present situation. We must come to comprehend the vital necessity of increasing our population. The bogy of unemployment must not frighten us. We must think, correctly so, of every new inhabitant as an additional consumer, with wants to be .supplied, and the supplying of those wants as uiving employment. We need a population of live millions!— "Manawatu Daily Times."

SALES TAX UNFAIR. The sales tax ir>, in its incidence, an unfair tax, because there is no assurance that it will be borne by those whom it is intended should bear it. namely, the consumers. Further, the payer of the tax is paying out his capital and has no certainty that he will recoup himself in a reasonable time. The seller of slowmoving lines of commerce pays relatively more than the seller of those goods which enjoy a quick turnover. Further, the fortunate or efficient business pays less through loss of interest than does the unfortunate and inefficient business. It is a certain fact that many a business is in part unfortunate, and the misfortune creates the inefficiency; it is not easy to draw the line of demarcation. The sales tax therefore falls with unequal weight. It is more onerous on a business which makes a mistake in its buying. A line of poods purchased with the idea of selling quickly may, on being placed on the market, find no ready sale and have to be jobbed oIT at a loss. The sales tax thereupon enlarges the loss. There may be no negligence on" the part of the buyer of such goods. For instance, spring millinery may be unsaleable, though wholly desirable, eimply because the early part of the spring has too much dull and rainy weather. These are the vicissitudes of trade, of course, hut they should not be added to bv the Treasury, unless under dire necessity. When such necessity passes tV> added and unequal burdens should lirst be lifted; — "Wanganui Chronicle."

EVEN A TOY NAVY HELPS. A medley like Lewis Carroll's "i?.hoe3 and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings" is presented to the mind in an interview in which a Scottish visitor tells us something about the Navy, the Air Force, and New Zealand's inability to persuade Australia to take potatoes in exchange for oranges. He says that we can save half a million by "sending our toy navy Home," as the only purpose it serves is a social one. That is not correct. Included in the half-million which naval defence is now costing us is £100,000 of the promised contribution of a million pounds for the Singapore Base. Another £30,(!14 is debt charges on the battle cruiser N»w Zealand, presented to Britain in iflOO. Then again, it is not correct to say that the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy has merely a social value. Up to last March 701 Xcw Zealand youths hud entered .the Navy. The [Hiy does not appeal to colonial boye, but it is n healthy, happy life, better than lounging in too great comfort at home. And if we sent this toy navy Home and the liill with it—Great Britain would only send it back again, for nothing in the wide world symbolises the integrity of the British race and its prestige among the nations like the sight of a businesslike warohip. In fact, if we could become a little more Olympian under the stimulus of the tradition that vessels of the Navy stand for, we would have less difliculty in ironing out the little differences associated with the consumption of oranges and potatoes. But human nature is so frail that a handful of Tasmanian potato growers can intimidate the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth with threats of lire and political slaughter. On a larger scale a similar "racket" is at work in England.- ostensibly in the interests of British agriculture. The venerable Navy helps us all to remember that self-seeking stratagems that ignore the nationbuilding aspects of inter-Imperial tra;i» arc unworthy of the traditions of the race. — "Christchurch Star."