CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1943, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE

HOSPITAL TAXATION

(T<> the mmrj

Sir, —When a local body urges action to get a Gpvern?n.ent to. remove an injustice to even pne man in the community how much more necessary is action when hundreds of thousands are being subjected to a double system, of taxation for the same thing? those who perpetuate this injus- ! tice have all expressed their sympathy \ for those who suffer yet do nothing. When a Government will not annul its j power to use its "tools" to double tax I fhe people -then all the people who ! love justice must combine "and hasten the election of another Government. On Friday last week the Hutt County Council expressed the view "that undey the. Spcial Security inaugurated by toe Government ail hospital treat? ment was provided foy free of cost, and that the whole pf the charges of these patients, including members of the armed lorces, shpuld be a charge uppn the nat;pnal funds," And §p the Hutt County Council declined tp help the Wa.ika.fo Hospital Board to I pqtain "aft alteration in tlie incidence i of hpspital taxation," which imposes a double tax, for what every ratepayer has already Paid by way pf WBges pr income. The government placed the basis of the spctai Secur;ty Fund upon the consolidated. revenue to some extent, and the rest upon the wages and incomes of the people-' And the Finance Minister on th.c second reading of the Bill" (vide Hansard, August 16, 1938) distinctly stated that the money levied from these sources would pay for everything, '♦including the cost pf administration." This double taxation fpr the same thing, is beginning to bear somewhat heavily upon the consciences of some of the members of hospital boards who are also town and. county councillors. While protesting against the double taxation of ratepayers, as city, town, and cpunty councillors they have to act as. the tools Pf the Govern? ment in taking over- one million pounds out of Ihe pockets of rate* payers all over the country. The Govr eminent has tons of money- in 1941 it had a surplus'to. the Spcial Secur-: ity Fund pf £1,867,440; in the same acopunt in 1942 it had a surplus of £3,023,835; sp the Government need not have collected one penny thrpugh hospitals' demands for Social Sepur^ ity. Further, last week at the Reserve Bank, it reduced the Marketing Ac* count by nearly one million pounds.— I am, etc., ' ! J. D. SIEVWRIGHT. !