TAXATION OF WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 8

TAXATION OF WOMEN.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT FUND.

(To the Editor.)

I should like to assure your correspondent "Mount Eden." who asks if "there are an women in this fair land who will take vn the cudgels on behalf of their toiling sisters" that efforts have been made for two yeara past to induce the late Government and th» present Government to act with humane consideration toward* elderly women, but 'with. out the slightest success. The worst feat&r* of the treatment of elderly women by botk Governments is the extraction of pitrfansmall sums from small incomes to swell Sa funds which provide "sustenance" for Tom* able-bodied men. It is useless to go iS details: individual cases of hardships, and, an the other hand, indolence of young men an well-known. From personal knowledge leu say that the answer to all appeals has bcei something like this: "The Government fnOr realises," etc., "but does not see its way," etc. In short, the Government is adamant in ft» determination to extract all it can from tka aged in this country. Truly it is Government by the men and for the men. I believe it » a fact that women do not obtain sustenance, and that where money is granted from hospital funds 17/6 will be paid to men, 10/ to women. Yet when it comes to taxes— unemployment taxation —women pay the same "as men. excepting the levy. Xew South Wales and Xew Zealand stand alone in British, commnnities as regards- taxation of women for the benefit of men. An unenviable distinction. SENEX.