TAXPAYERS' BURDEN

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 100, 2 May 1929, Page 14

TAXPAYERS' BURDEN

INDIRECT RETURNS

TIME FOR POLICY PASSED

In the opinion of Professor Murphy, Professor of lieonomies at the Victoria University College, New Zealand has reached the stage when the test of indirect social returns in Government works should be abandoned and further social utilities should not bo undertaken, except on a business basis, unless they, covered full costs.

Indirect return might be considered, in opening up a pioneer state by roads and bridges, but there were few if any, that could not now be secured by alternative methods. The cost of new railways was as much as £36.000 per mile, and it would take over £,1500 per year to pay the interest charges before the wage of a single guard could be paid. The taxpayer has to bear theburden for the deficit, and in the North Island they had the situation of a bolstered ( up state utility, the railways, competing with the shipping companies who were helping to pay the taxes. In. other words, the railways were killing the people who were helping to keep them alive.

The indirect returns from any undertaking such as railways, bridges, etc., could not be measured, and they often could not be proved to exist. Who was to say that the railways now being constructed would eventually pay? Tho cry of indirect gain simply became an emotional barometer to justify every new type of expenditure.