"SOMEONE MUST PAY"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 8

"SOMEONE MUST PAY"

(To the Editor.!

Sir, —"The Post" is to be congratulated upon its leading article of the sth instant exposing the fallacy of the argument that high exchange does not increase the cost of living. You have quoted with good effect the official index numbers, but it is well known that these cumbrous statistical numbers are slow to reflect the real tendencies, and the extra costs are much greater than you suggest. A clearer idea of the tremendous tax that high exchange involves can be gained from the practical fact that on every pound of tea or butter we pay approximately 3d for exchange alone: On tea we pay an additional sum of necirly 5d per lb to cover the tea tax and the sales tax—both of which are mainly due to the annual £2,000,000 loss which the Treasury sustains through exchange on its overseas interest payments. The high exchange and the sales tax are the most iniquitous imposts that have ever been levied in New Zealand, and their heavy burden has to be borne even by the poor and those on relief. As for the argument that high exchange increases national income, even an infant could not1 be expected to agree. If we can increase our national income by manipulating the j currency, what is the use of working? If we can' increase the national income by high exchange, here is a method to pay off the Public Debt! Messrs. Forbes and Coates, Sir William Hunt, and Professor Tocker have had a lot to say about exchange, but your newspaper seems to be the only one with the courage to "call their bluff" and show that the exchange manipulation was nothing more or less than a piece of political wire-pull-ing.—l am, etc., TAXPAYER. November 6. .