SHARED BY ALL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 38, 14 February 1931, Page 11

SHARED BY ALL

PLACING THE BURDEN

GOVERNMENT'S AIM

Mr. Forbes declared that it is the aim of the Government —and, .ho believed, of everybody—that the burden should be equally shared by all sections of the community. That was the principle underlying the Government's proposals. "A prospective shortage of £4,500,----000 is the problem,"'said the Prime Minister, "and the amount is. so large that I think it will be generally recognised that drastic measures and considerable sacrifices on tho part of the' people are necessary before the gap can bo bridged, as, of course, it must be. For the most part the cause of the shortage is -a shrinkage in practically all the revenue resources, which fact clearly indicates that the problem is not a passing phaso duo to any isolated incidents or piisealculations, but is port and parcel of the wider problem, of adjusting practically our whole economic j structure to the world-wide lower price level. It follows that the restoration of budgetary equilibrium on a permanent and secure basis is a practical impossibility unless and until general economic equilibrium has been restored and that a solution of the wider problems will automatically provide the greater part of the remedy for the budgetary cltflicuJties. That is to say, the two problems are largely one, and must be dealt with accordingly. This is the basic principle underlying the Government's proposals. "If ;i lower level of export prices is to prevail henceforth, and there appears to be little doubt about that,_ then our primary producers in particular and business in general cannot carry on unless working costs are lowered. Acpordingly, what is essential is a cuttingdown of overhead and also direct working expenses.. From another angle it will bo apparent.,'to all logical people that if a much-decreased national income has to be divided among the same number of people as heretofore, either a great many will have to go very short, and, in other words, be largely unemployed, or each and every one of us must be content with less. Knowing tlie spirit of our people, I have not the slightest doubt ■ that the' general desire is that the burden should be shared by one and all, and the Government will do its utmost to arrange matters to this end.