STATE ECONOMY URGED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22465, 28 July 1938, Page 18

STATE ECONOMY URGED

POLICY OF SPENDING OPPOSED “SECURITY HAS BECOME A MYTH” [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, July 27. “I am more than ever convinced that the spending policy now being followed by the Government must ultimately prove to be unsound from an economic point of view, if we take into account the taxpaying capacity of the community over an average of years,” said Mr H. D. Acland, the president. when addressing the annual meeting of the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Federation to-day. The Government was extending us programme to an extent which would appear to prove unworkable in the ultimate issue. Mr Acland compared increases in taxation and expenditure, the outstanding increase under the latter head being for pensions, which had increased by £3,000.000 since 1933-36. The figures would bring home the difficulties which might have to be faced in the near future if the tendency to increase expenditure of the people’s money on social services was continued. Last year’s unemployment tax realised approximately £5,250,000, and he was afraid the provision of employment at high rates of pay from this fund, irrespective, in many cases, of value given in return, would undermine the self-reliance of the people and still further encourage dependence on the Government to provide from the pocket of the taxpayer a comfortable living for all who might claim it, whether or not that living had been honestly earned. “I am afraid the present policy is putting unemployment at a premium and thrift at a discount, and in the event of a sudden drop in values of exports on our overseas markets, it would appear that the present scale of expenditure can only be maintained by imposing an increasing ratio of hardship on taxpayers generally, as a result of efforts to maintain receipts through taxation at a level impossible for the general taxpayer to find under average conditions of trade within the Dominion.” State of Industry As to industry generally, the present position was obscure. One section strove to keep the wheels turning and the coins passing, so that men and women might eat and live until tomorrow; others strove to obtain mastery of these means of production; others to retain that mastery to themselves; and another section, again, to share that mastery; while, unfortunately, it would appear that an increasing number were content to enjoy the fruits of the labour of others. In short, things generally appear to be unstable, uncertain, and uneasy. Stability had become a legend and security a myth. “It would appear that, unless we are very careful, we may suffer severely from a tyranny of state benevolence, past the point of ability of the individual taxpayer to maintain,” said Mr Acland. “I believe with Macauley that our rulers will best promote the improvement of the people by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, defending property, and by observing strict economy in every department of the State. Let the Government do this, and the people will assuredly do the rest.”