Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1939. TAXATION.

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1939, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1939. TAXATION.

JUST how heavy is the burden of taxation in New Zealand is strikingly demonstrated by figures given in the latest monthly Abstract of Statistics, these official returns being calculated seriously to counteract the “cheer germs” disseminated by the Labour Government. Revenue from taxation for the year ended March 31, 1939, totalled no less than £37,764,912, an increase of £997,387, compared with the previous record total of £36,767,525 for the preceding twelve months. For the year ended March 31, 1936, the total revenue from taxation was £25,476,372, so that the latest figure represents an increase over 1935-36 of £12,288,540, or more than 48 per cent. So much for the promises made by Labour speakers prior to election. Far!

from effecting a decrease in the calls upon the pocket of the public, the policy of the present Government has resulted in taxation reaching unprecedented levels, and it is questionable whether the taxpayers generally are receiving value for their money. The taxation receipts per head of mean population are illuminating. For the year ended March 31, 1936, the total was £l6/5/6, for 1937, £l9/14/10; for 1938, £23/1/3; and for 1939, £23/8/9;* while there is every indication of a further increase being recorded for the year ending March 31,1940. Outstanding in the revenue from taxation for 1938-39 was the sum of £5,461,202 under the heading of employment promotion, being an increase of £356,183 compared with the previous year. According to the Government, there is no such thing as unemployment, this being only a memory of the “soup kitchen” days. The “unemployment” fund is a thing to be forgotten, and the new nomenclature is “employment promotion,” while Scheme 13 is not recognised as unemployment relief. Whatever may be in a name, there is no disguising the fact that “employment promotion” has to be paid for, to the tune of approximately £5,000,000 per annum. In previous years, the cost of relief work was paid for out of the unemployment levy, the wages tax, and the tax on incomes. Now, however, the Employment Promotion Fund has been replaced by the social security tax, with the result that the general taxpayer is called upon to provide the whole cost of Scheme 13, thus adding a few more straws to the camel’s already-overloaded back. The Abstract of Statistics also shows that motor-vehicles taxation has increased from £2,124,130 in 1936 to £3,059,989 in 1939; customs revenue, £8,161,161 to £lO,650,428; sales tax (the abolition of which was promised) £2,462,602 to £3,444,696; income tax £4,581,328 to £9,303,495; racing taxation £378,851 to £661,443; while land tax has increased from £458,873 to £1,058,499.

Some interesting figures relative to the huge expenditure of a financially unproductive nature on social services in New Zealand, based on the accounts for the year 1938-39, have been prepared by the Associated Chambers of Commerce. In 1928-29, when the value of national production reached its highest point in the Dominion’s history (until exceeded in 193637), the social service expenditure totalled £7,294,000; in 1935-36, the amount spent was £12,776,000; in 1938-39 it has risen to £19,564,000; while the burden is expected to be made even heavier during the present session of Parliament. The cost of social increased at a greater rate than in the case of other State services, and the respective totals for 193830 were £19,564,000 and £22,682,000. In that year, the expenditure per head of population on social services was no less than an estimated £l4/14/11. The advent of the social security scheme is expected to increase the total cost of social services over 1938-39, in the current year, by at least £4,400,000. There will be wide support for the vijew that the level of taxation on productive enterprise, needed to support this constantlygrowing weight of unproductive expenditure, is uneconomically high, and that it is detrimental in its effect on prices, production, and the standard of living. The Labour balloon is still going up, but it is rapidly nearing burstingpoint.