WAR TAXES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 3, 28 September 1939, Page 3

WAR TAXES

Dunedin Paper’s Comment

Dominion Special Service

DUNEDIN, September 26.

.Stating that the ad'ditioual duties imposed by the Minister of Finance to meet the cost of New Zealand’s war effort will recommend themselves on the ground that they fall upon luxuries. The “Otago Daily Times,” in editorial comment, proceeds: “The new taxation will fall on all sections of the people, but more heavily on the class of income taxpayers than on any other. As to the money it is proposed to obtain from the Reserve Bank, the public probably knows that inflation of currency such as the Government apparently contemplates has the effect that money earned in salaries and wages will not go so far as it goes now, and that there will be an inevitable increase in the cost of living. The sum of £9,750,090 is required till the tend of the present financial year, but in a complete year the cost will be not less than £20,000.000 and may be considerably more than that. It is obvious, therefore, that very heavy demands must be made on the taxpayers of this country as long as the war lasts. The Dominion cannot afford to finance a war and at the same time spend huge sums on unproductive undertakings here, there and everywhere withiu its borders.”