EMERGENCY FINANCIAL MEASURES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 307, 25 September 1939, Page 8

EMERGENCY FINANCIAL MEASURES

The fact that the Government has had to delay bringing down its emergency financial proposals until the present week may be taken to imply that it is not finding the task of planning a simple one. It should now be evident to all who have given any thought at all to the matter that the extravagant spending of the past three years, coupled with the consequential heavy imposts of taxation on all classes, have drained the ordinary sources of revenue which normally would have been available to meet the emergency conditions arising out of the war.

There is no escaping the fact that the Dominion will now be called on to pay dearly for the reckless policy pursued by the Government in drawing so heavily on the resources of the country and in spending so extensively on unproductive works. It is all the more necessary that in the measures which may be taken to meet the needs of the situation which now has arisen every care should be taken first of all to ensure that in collecting from the public the funds necessary for carrying on the affairs of the country and in providing for essential war measures, the capacity of our primary and secondary industries to produce to the utmost limit should neither be weakened nor discouraged. That heavy additional burdens will be placed on everyone is certain, and they will be the heavier because of the load already being carried. The greatest possible endeavour, therefore, should be made to cut down unnecessary expenditure on local undertakings which, in the circumstances which prevail today, are more than ever unjustified. Although the Government has already been granted authority to spend huge sums of money on various classes of public works it was understood that this expenditure would now be curtailed. If the Government faces this part of its task with the thoroughness which the public has the right to expect, the savings made should appreciably lessen the demands rendered necessary by the war. It should specially be borne in mind that there has been a tendency to lowered production in our primary industries, and if this is to be-checked and an upward movement accelerated the discouraging effects of high costs and heavy taxation must be safeguarded against with the utmost possible care.