"PAY.OR PERISH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 153, 29 June 1940, Page 10

"PAY.OR PERISH."

STERN BUDGET.

MR. FRASER'S COMMENT. BRING THE WAR HOME. (By —Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Commenting on the Budget taxation proposals the Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Eraser,'stated they were drastic and would bring home to everybody the stern reality of war and the imperative need of sacrifice, voluntary or 'compulsory. "Once that is understood," continued Mr. Eraser, "the additional -financial burdens will .be accepted ■•■ by every rational person in the essential spirit of willingness and determination .to win the war. If anyone thinks it possible' for any person or. section of the community to escape his or her share of the extra war taxation he is living in. a fool's paradise, and is completely out of touch with the realities of the situation. "Every .step the Government has taken in \ meeting the war 'situation, every penny of the war expenditure, and the more that is to follow, is necessary if we are to continue to live as a nation and as part of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is- a clear case of pay or perish." • ■ 'The duty of the Government was to raise the money necessary for the war effort and to distribute the inevitable burden of payment as fairly as was humanly possible throughout the community, Mr. Eraser continued. "Rally to support tho country's war effort in every way possible, and pay willingly, even at a sacrifice, because all that wo hold dear— country, our commonwealth,' our liberty, our lives—arc at stake, and their "successful protection depends on the helpful' efforts of each and all of us," he concluded.