Population And Living- Costs

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 2, 28 September 1937, Page 11

Population And LivingCosts

Sir, —I note that the Hon. W. E. Barnard and Messrs. T. 11. McCoombs. W. J. Lyon, A. G. Hultquist and J. B. F. Cotterell have asked a question in Parliament which indicates that they are very concerned about a decline in our population.

I would suggest that if these members are really in earnest about this matter there is one direction in which they could expend their energy with great advantage and that is in the direction of cheapening the cost of living. The Government of which they are members has set up an elaborate and expensive Internal Marketing Department which was supposed to help this, but food has never been so dear as it is at present, and this applies to babies’ food particularly. There is also the question of the crushing taxation applied by the Government, and if these members are in earnest, here again, they might well adopt Mr. W. J. Polson’s suggestion of an exemption of £5O for the year in which the child is born. —I am, etc., PATERFAMILIAS. Wellington, September 25.