A VIOLENT DISLOCATION 0F THE PUBLIC FINANCES

Evening Star, Issue 18136, 28 November 1922, Page 3

A VIOLENT DISLOCATION 0F THE PUBLIC FINANCES

SHREWD SUMMARY OF PROBABILITIES. “Wo ate told,” says the ‘Otago Daily Times’ in a. cogent leader under date October ID, 1922, “that at the present time there is an expenditure of seven millions or so per annum upon drink in New Zealand, and that the revenue which accrues in consequence to the _ State amounts to about two and a-half millions. “ The suggestion is that if these seven million, instead of being spent on drink, were spent on clothing and. furniture and hoots and shoes, upon theatres and joyrides and luxuries, the revenue obtained from the Government would not be smaller than it now is. We cannot, however, be at all certain about this._ High duties are levied on alcohol; it is very unlikely that the expenditure upon other goods of the amount at present spent on drink would yield the .State a revenue nearly equal to that derived by it from the liquor duties. There would, in this event, be a gap in the revenue that wornd have to be filled by the proceeds of taxation from some other source. “Moreover, it is certain that the immediate effect of the enactment of Prohibition would be a rather violent dislocation of the public finances. It is because this is recognised by Mr Massey, who is the Minister responsible for the public finances, that he hinted recently that, if Prohibition was carried, it might be necessary that Parliament should meet in the early months of the year. The Government must be as secure as possible m As finance, and it cannot safely take the nsk of trusting to the loss of revenue upon liquor being straightway made up to it from some other source. It must so regulate its finance as to ensure that it shall receive the revenue it requires. “It may be surmised, therefore, that the immediate effect of tho enactment of Prohibition would be that the duties would be increased upon articles such as tea and sugar, which go into general consumption, and axe therefore the moss dependable sources of revenue, to make good a probable deficiency in revenue. In other words, special taxation would have to bo looked for.” Mr Massey, in his election manifesto, said that he hoped to .reduce the burden of taxation. Tho implied doubt as to the feasibility of such a course was quite obviously expressed with a view to the possibility of a Prohibition, vote. Mr Massey knows that in such an event it would be impossible to reduce taxation — or, indeed, to avoid increasing it. Every responsible adult must realise the folly of increasing the cost of living by throwing away liquor revenue. Two and a-half millions sterling are paid annually as a voluntary contribution to natural revenue by consumers of aloohoL No person who objects to paying the tax need buy the liquor. But if this large amount is lost to tho State through Prohibition it must be made good by taxes <>n necessities, which everyone must buy. Veto Continuance, and keep down taxation and the high cost of living.—[Advt.]