BACK TO BEGINNINGS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 19, 22 July 1933, Page 12

BACK TO BEGINNINGS

Currency difficulties have in various parts of the world led to a temporary reversion to barter. The. early user of token money stamped a picture of an ox on a piece of leather so that he might be spared the trouble of taking the ox to market. The twentieth century possessor of goods, confronted with ex* change and other difficulties, has occasionally found it easier to negotiate direct exchanges of goods for goods. . A proposal for a similar reversion to the methods of ancient times was made by a ratepayer who suggested to the Mayor of Lower Hutt that relief workers should be allowed to work out their rates. In the feudal period and later no small part of the dues of subjects to the monarch and the State were paid in service—especially military service. There was; also ah obligation to give labour for other purposes. The maintenance of roads and bridges was provided by days of labour before and after harvest. In time all such payments by service were either remitted or commuted for cash payments, long since lost to sight in the mass, of later rates and taxes. In primitive societies, however, the old service form may be reintroduced for special purposes. The beetle-col-lecting days in Samoa provide an illustration. Without considering the possibility of a similar reversion here limited to relief-working ratepayers, it is evident that the complications .of modern society would make a general system of servicepayment impossible. As the Mayor of Lower Hutt pointed out a local body needs as much in cash that it cannot accept service. Moreover those whd might desire to pay in service (especially service of their own choosing) would be a positive embarrassment to a local body or the Government. Probably the Public Service could be staffed with business men and others' willing to thus work off income tax, unemployment tax, .sales tax, and Customs duties. The man of moderate means now works from a month to* two months in the year just to pay his taxes. If he could choose his own job he might at least have a change of work by paying in direct service.