Mr Holyoake's Address

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29240, 25 June 1960, Page 3

Mr Holyoake's Address

Sir,—R. F. Palmer is either joking or badly informed whep he says the Labour Government has reduced taxation. Here art the facts. In their last full yeafr the National Government? collected from all sources of'taxat tion £252.8 million. In 1958-59 Labour collected £305.2 an increase of £52.4 million. Workers are still paying an additional 4d on petrol. 3Jd a packet on cigarettes, 2d a glass on bee% 20 per cent, additional sales tat on a car. Mr F. P. Walsh say> the purchasing power of wage* has dropped by 2 per cent, sinefc November, 1957, when they were at the highest level ever reached. Mr Palmer says: “No-one had tp look for a job in 1958.” Ik Labour’s first year <1958) unerrfployment increased by double that of 1957 and in May, 1959, was 1541. There has been more unemployment under Labour than in the eight years of National. Industrial stoppages show a|> increase of 58 per cent, since November, 1957. —Yours, etc., J FACTS. » June 23, 1960. * Sir, —Your correspondent, A. F. Palmer, ought to know why Labour's £lOO rebate offer was a bribe, and the 25 per cent, was not. It is all a matter of the manner in which the offer was made. In the case of Labour's £lOO rebate, the matter was so couched that the people understood that they would receive what amounted to a gift of £lOO. Mr Palmer must know quite well that, for many weeks, the* Inland Revenue Office was besieged with people who believed that they were due to receive £lOO. That was what they understood from Labour’s offer. That is why it is impossible for Mr Palmer or any other Labour apologist to dispose of the charge that a bribe was offered to the people. Their awakening was a very sad one, and they are not • likely tq forget it.—Yours, etc., REMEBERING. June 23, 1960.