ECONOMY STILL NEEDED

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 8

ECONOMY STILL NEEDED

Though it is pleasing to have the assurance that there will be no increase in the unemployment tax, this feeling is tempered by the apprehension that an over-burdened Budget may make fresh calls on the taxpayer. Well may he exclaim: “Is there no other way ?” A message to-day reports the British Chancellor as saying that while he believes that the revival in confidence is justified, mid will continue in 1933 in the absence of an unforeseen set-back, “we have not reached the limit of econonjy, and should" still find many things that can be done without.” There are two good reasons for this observation, the report of the Private Members’ Economy Committee, an unofficial body, and the reports of local economy in England and Wales, and in Scotland, presented by the Ray Committee appointed to investigate the question of local body expenditure. Mr. Chamberlain can hardly have failed to have been impressed by the findings of these two bodies. Seventy-six Conservative members, two National Labour, and one “Liberal National,” served on the eight sub-committees of the Private Members’ Economy Committee. It is true that premature publication of the report led to many of the members dissociating themselves from it on the ground that it -had not received the final endorsement of the general committee. The real significance of the inquiry, however, lies in the fact that it represented a move within Parliament itself to keep the Government up to the scratch in the matter of continuing its search for economies. The Committee of which Sir William Ray was chairman consisted of men of wide experience in local government, and although its order of reference was less comprehensive, its findings coincided very closely with those of the Private Members’"Committee in so far as they covered the same ground. Each,insisted on the need for a general substitution of block grants for percentage grants, for further retrenchments in education, for the abolition of subsidies under the Housing Act, and for a further reduction in the expenditure upon the construction and maintenance of roads.

“Economy in national and local expenditure,” submitted the Ray Committee, “if it results, as it should result, in reduction of the.burden of rates and taxes, will not only set money free for the development of trade and industry, but by removing anxiety lest even greater burdens should be imposed, will also stimulate business enterprise and encourage private individuals in wise expenditure.” The first reaction to increased taxation is a general buttoning-up of the public’s pockets. It should be the Government’s business to devise measures for unbuttoning them. If further economies will achieve this end, then the Government should not hesitate to explore these possibilities. Mr. Chamberlain's remark applies with equal force to'this country.