NATIONALIST FINANCE

Grey River Argus, 5 September 1939, Page 9

NATIONALIST FINANCE

HOW THE WEALTHY WERE PROTECTED. . Speaking on the Finance Bffl last week, Mr J'. O’Brien, M.P., in an interesting speech, showed that the Reform and United Parties plunged the country into debt during their term of ofiice. He created some amusement by quoting from Hon. A. E. Ransom’s speech when the United Government were in power. This caused discomfort for Sir Alfred Ransom since he is now a bench-mate of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, at whom his criticism was then levelled. He also gave some interesting figures as to how the Nationalists balanced their budgets. Herwith is a section of his speech:— ‘‘Since this debate commenced, this Government has been accused of all the prodigal expenditure possible under the sun, that we have wasted money, spent too much, given the worker a good time; we should have shortened our cloth, we should have cut pensions and clipped the worker’s wages, and so on, and all that criticism has come from the Opposition. They claim to have ..done much better when they were in office and I have gone to the trouble of taking out some figures of the expenditure by the Reform Party, and by the National Party when the two parties coalesced in, 1931, and they are rather extraordinary. They have been telling us that we are heading for bankruptcy and that perhaps if we had done what they did when in office we might be all right.

BOOM YEARS. Let. us have a look at the public debt from 1919 to 1930, and remember there was no war in those days, we were living in a boom period, times were fairly good and prices particularly high* During that period the national debt increased from £176,000,000 to £267,000,000, or a little over £8.000,000 a year for those eleven years. During the same period the private and public-body debt increased proportionately. Private mortgages increased from £115,000,000 to £235,000,000, an increase of nearly £11,000,000 per annum. We were going into debt at a fairly rapid rate. During the same years, the local-body debt went, from £22,000,000 in 1919 to £64,000,000 in 1930. an increase of approximately £42.000.000. or nearly £4,000,000 per annum. These were good times. I should say that at that time we were going into debt to the tune of about £24.000,000 a year, and there was no kick coming from honourable gentlemen. Good old vested interest was getting his clutches on the country and demanding the payment of interest in the future. However, that was not all. The honourable gentlemen got into difficulties and they came to Ihe time when they had to balance their budget. I might say that during those years of plenty, instead of balancing their budget when they borrowed all that money- -£B,000.000 for public debt, £4,000.000 for local bodies, and £11,000,000 for private people—they looked after their wealthy friends. They cut the in-come-tax. They reduced the income-’ tax from a little over £8,000,000 to a little over £3,000,000 a year. In other words, they gave their wealthy friends in those years a present of about £30,000,000. The Hon. Mr. Parry: Forty million pounds in the ten years. Mr. O’Brien: Not quite as much as that; about £30,000,000. About £5.000,000 a year for six years they handed to their wealthy friends.

DODGING TAXAXTION. It is rather interesting perhaps to hear what the honourable member for Pahiatua said about some of that taxation at that time when the United Government was in office when it started under the late Sir Joseph Ward to try to remedy some of the abuses that the Reform Party had put upon the statute-book. I give the honourable gentleman credit for it, even though in the meantime he nas joined up with some of his former enemies. He said: “When I was dealing with taxation, I met quite a number of my own acquaintances in the sheep-country who have expressed to me their utter surprise that the Reform Government, which they had supported, had not brought about an amendment to the taxation principles, so that they might be called upon to pay what they themselves had expected they should pay. Their words to me have been, “So long as the Government feels that we should not pay, we would be foolish to proffer the tax.’’ An Hon. Member: Who said that? Mr. O’Brien: The Honourable Member for Pahiatua. He went on: “During the last six years, many of these land-owners have paid actually less in taxation than they paid before lhe war” The hon. gentleman added: “These favoured gentlemen, who have been escaping for six years will, we are told, be ruined now that they are asked to bear their fair share of the country’s taxation, which rests upon the shoulders of every other taxpayer in the Dominion.” Was there any attempt to balance the budget in those days? Were there many members of the present Opposition who complained about tnat kind of spending, when they borrow-; ed £8,000,000 a year, when they gave relief to i their friends, the wealthy I land-owners, when they brought in the celebrated amendment in 1923 ( that exempted from taxation all income derived from the direct use of land? The honourable member for Temuka was quite pleased when that legislation came down. The honourable gentlemen who hold that they are working for farmers were looking after vested interests in those days particularly well. Not only that, but there was such a thing "in the country as accumulated surpluses. Mr. Broadfoot: “Soup-kitchens.” Mr. O’Brien: We will come to the soup-kitchens later. If the honourable gentleman had his due he would be in a soup-kitchen for the rest of his life. His mind never rises above soupkitchens.

BALANCING BUDGETS.. Up to 1929, there was in the country accumulated surpluses amounting to about £30,000,000. These had accumulated since before the days of Richard John Seddon and this amount was increased by a further £1,750,000 between 1929 and 1935. What did the

Reform Government do with the accumulated surpluses? Practically squandered the lot. The sum of £13,500,000 went into, the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Account; and some of that was hypothecated afterwards. Not only were the hon. gentlemen grabbing every penny they could, before putting a penny-piece of taxation on their wealthy friends, but they were raiding the Treasury and leaving it empty. Let us consider how they balanced the Budget in 1932, 1933 and up to 1935. They took accumulated surpluses from the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Account; they took post office profits amounting* to £1,500,000; they took from the Main Highways Fund £1,300,000; and they took the profits from the sale or gold coin amounting to £1,364,018. The total amount of money they took from these sources in order to balance the Budgets was £9,014,118. Yet these hon. gentlemen will have the hide to stand, up and tell this Government what it should do in order to balance the Budget. Then these hon. gentlemen raided every poor M>x in, the country in order to balance the Budget. They raided the motherhood endowment of the National Provident Fund; they raided the hospitals and the schools. They even fleeced the poor charwomen in order to balance the Budget. So well did they carry out their raiding activities that when this Government came into power, it found they had cleaned up everything so well that there was hardly a penny left in the Treasury. Then they have the audacity to say that the country was in a splendid condition when this Government came into office. They never tire of telling us the chantry was sound financially, when, as a matter of plain fact, Labour found an empty Treasury.