STRONG PROTEST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20618, 20 November 1941, Page 4

STRONG PROTEST

ABOLITION OF RATES HOSPITAL MAINTENANCE LABOURERS' OBJECTION (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A proposal to remove hospital costs from rates and make them a charge on the social security fund, was criticised adversely yesterday at the general labourers’ conference, which is at present sitting in Wellington. The following motion was carried unanimously: “This conference directs the attention of all workers to the movement sponsored by the Municipal Association, Counties’ Association, Farmers’ Union, Sheepowners’ Federation, Wellington City Council and the press, the object of which is to abolish hospital levies on property and to compel the landless majority of the people to bear the cost by (a) further taxation of wages and salaries, or (b) further indirect taxation. We declare: First, that hospital maintenance is a proper charge on the community value of land; secondly, that to relieve the richest people in the country of taxation ’ at* the expense of the people who have no property but who depend on their labour is indefensible, inexcusable and intolerable, and we pledge ourselves accordingly to oppose it; thirdly, that the waxes tax should be abolished altogether at the earliest opportunity: fourthly, that a copy 01 these resolutions be forwarded to the Government.” Move Gathers Momentum In proposing the motion, Mr. P. M. Butler, general secretary, said: “The agitation in favour of abolishing the hospital rate has been proceeding for years past, but has lately gathered momentum and, as the originators had the sympathetic co-operation of the press, it behoves the porkers tp arouse themselves.

“As a practical illustration of what the proposal means, I would point out t that, according to the Municipal Year Book, there are 76,036 electors on the Wellington municipal roll, of whom the ratepayers number 22,623, or considerably less than one-third. ' That third includes the landlords. The majority, of course, includes those who pay rent and who live on a precarious tenure in lodgings, m flats and other undesirable places. These people depend entirely on their labour and the proposal means that the ratepayers who practically own the city are to be relieved of the hospital rate at the expense of their tenants, who are already having a hard struggle to pay their rents. Richest Estates in City • “The ratepayers also include the ■richest estates of the city. The capial value of one estate is about £BOO,OOO, of which the unimproved » value, in round figures, is £400,000. The abolition of the hospital levy would mean that this estate would •save something like £2300 a year. In other words, every insurance company, every bank, every shipping company, every brewery and every hotel would be relieved of taxation at the expense of the propertyless majority. Of course, there are small ratepayers who mostly own their mortgages, but to relieve the rates by placing hospital taxation on wages and salaries will mean a fractional reduction in rates but greater taxation from wages. (i “Accordingly, it behoves those who do not have large property holdings to arouse themselves against the insidious machinations to which the recently-elected Wellington City Council is a party. It \yould be well for these councillors to bear in mind that only one-third of 1 their constituents are ratepayers and. then, perhaps, some of them would hesitate to betray the highest interest of the people who elected them.”