TAX ON SYMPATHY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 66, 11 December 1930, Page 10

TAX ON SYMPATHY

Mr. Archer’s View DONATIONS FOR WORKLESS Dominion Special Service. Christchurch, December 10. “Personally. I do not intend to follow the example of my friend Mr. G. Baildoh, the Alayor of Auckland, because at this time when there is so much help needed for the unemployed, the generous impulses of sympathetic people should be strengthened rather than weakened. Consequently I shall still be pleased to receive donations for the purpose indicated.” So said the Mayor of Christchurch (the Rev. J. K. Archer) to-day in commenting on the action of the Mayor of Wellington in opening a public subscription list to provide funds on which to claim the Unemployment Board’s subsidy, and also on the action of the Mayor of Auckland (Mr. Baildon) in declining to open a similar list. “At the same time,” added the Mayor, “I find myself in sympathy with Mr. Baildon’s point of view. I have long thought that the whole cost of meeting the unemployment situation should come out of public funds, otherwise people who are sympathetic and generous bear most of the burden, and those persons of an opposite temperament escape. Moreover, my experience convinces me that though there are noble exceptions the rule is that the poor and the comparatively poor give the greatest proportion of the money subscribed for charitable funds, while the rich, and particularly the very rich, button up their pockets and keep their money for their own purposes. “The only way to get at them is by taxation,” concluded Mr. Archer, “and on that ground I think there is a great deal to be said for Mr. Baildon’s point of view in declining to open a public subscription list.”