TAXATION URGED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 17 November 1943, Page 6

TAXATION URGED

FOR PATRIOTIC FUNDS

CO ELECTION DIFFICULTIES

The present system of raising money for patriotic funds was inequitable, said Mr. F. N. Ambler, chairman of the 1943 Patriotic Appeal Committee, at a meeting of the Auckland Metropolitan Patriotic Committee last night, in support of his resolution that these funds should be raised by taxation and administered through the existing patriotic bodies.

The resolution was carried and will be brought before the annual conference of the National Patriotic Fund Board provincial patriotic councils by Mr. Ambler. The conference will be held in Wellington on November 24 and 25.

Mr. Ambler said the present scheme resulted in a great waste of manpower. Street collections raised on an average £1500 and to obtain this between 200 and 300 people had to work all day. In addition, the burden fell unevenly, as advantage was taken of the generous giver. He quoted figures showing that during the appeal some large establishments had done little to support the funds, while many had given nothing. Taxation, in his opinion, was the only fair method.

The proposal had been made on a number of previous occasions and rejected each time, said Mr. N. B. Spencer, and he doubted whether it would be acceptable now. The chairman, Mr. G. W. Hutchison. said he could not see the Government raising the money by taxation and handing it over to the patriotic organisations for administration. However, it was most unsatisfactory to find people refusing flatly to contribute to the funds. Mr. Ambler mentioned a canvassing campaign undertaken by i'ha Junior Chamber of Commerce, in which it had been found that 10 per cent of the business people approached gave willingly and 90 per cent gave unwillingly, while 60 petcent thought taxation should be used to obtain the money. This campaign ha<l taken 15 weeks instead of the expected four. A query was raised by Miss Kllen Melville as to whether all patriotic giving would be stopped if the resolution were carried, but Mr. Ambler said this would not be so.