The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1943. Examples for N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24092, 30 October 1943, Page 4

The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1943. Examples for N.Z.

The re-elected Labour Government in Australia has given the re-elected Labour Government in New Zealand two examples to follow. Though the Federal Treasurer for some time resisted strong persuasion to consider pay-as-you-earn taxation, making much of the fallacious Treasury argument of the tax lag and arrears, the Prime Minister recently announced that the Government would accept the proposal of the Leader of the Opposition and appoint a special Parliamentary committee to report on this reform and alternatives. The ground has already been prepared, in part, since the Commissioner of Taxation has had a panel of his officers at work on a report on the pay-as-you-earn system, and the Taxation Advisory Committee,, after studying certain specific problems of hardship, had been invited by Federal Treasurer to go on to consider related aspects of the proposed new system. Both reports will be available to; the special Parliamentary committee; and it seemed to -be Mr Curtin’s -view that, though the committee might not find in them the evidence to warrant a “full pay-as-you-earn plan “of taxation,’’ they would certainly show the way to “a much simpler “reform in tax administration.” It remains to be seen whether this view is right or wrong; but the point of present importance is that the Australian Government and people are now headed towards informed decisions. They are late, but they are moving. In New Zealand, the Government has given no sign of any interest in the question whatever. But it is an urgent one : . / If the Minister of Finance' does not move soon, he will move too late. The second example given by the Curtin Government is in the setting up of a departmental committee to report on migration. This actiqn has been taken, no doubt, at the instance of Dr. Evatt, Minister of External • Affairs, who, during his visit to England and since his return, has paid close attention to immigration. The committee is tp consider, inter alia: The greater scope than there had been in the past for the absorption in secondary industries in Australia of industrial workers from Britain because of Australia’s great war-time production and development The assistance to migration provided by nominated passages. The machinery to be established in Australia for the collection of information about openings for employment, for reception, placing, < and after-care of migrants. The machinery to be established in London to deal with applications, medical inspection, and selection. The assistance to be given to migrants with their passage money, and the need for an agreement between the British and Commonwealth Governments to pay the cost of such passages. Essentially, the committee is a factfinding committee, but it is finding the facts on which the • Cabinet, obviously, intends to base a programme, of. action; and the tenor of speeches "Mr . -Curtin and -Dr. Eyattv expressty : rejecting the isolationist policies of. the past, shows that it is intended to be action unlimited by any such stultifying conditibns as New Zealand’s Prime I Minister has laid down. This problem of immigration, again, is in a quite literal sense vital, and it is urgent. If the Government does not investigate at once and press on from investigating to planning, it will be tbo late. Australians example should be accepted—and bettered. It has an obvious defect in being confined to immigration from Britain, which—especially if the Beveridge Plan and a complementary policy of full employment operate—is not likely to be a large source of migrants, and least of all likely to be a large source of youthful migrants, such as Australia and New Zealand most need. The maximum contribution that selective immigration can make to a great and organised expansion of New Zealand’s population, industry, and wealth—that is the necessary aim; and the time to begin pursuing it is now.