MR M. MOOHAN ON USES OF TAXATIONWESTPORT ADDRESS

Grey River Argus, 10 November 1949, Page 8

MR M. MOOHAN ON USES OF TAXATIONWESTPORT ADDRESS

Addressing a m°eting in the Victoria Theatre on 'M'esday night, the Labour member tor Fttcne (Mr M. Moohan) answered the Nationalist allegation of excessive taxation by giving a thorough review of the question. Ha showed how the money received in taxation is allocated to services which could not be done without. Mr Moohan received a very attentive hearing from an assemblage of between 150 end 200 people, and often rounds of applause, and at the conclusion of his address he was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, while another resolution was carried unanimously, expressing confidence in the Labour Government. The Mayor, (Mr J. M. Robertson), presided). . Mr Moohan recounted the record of the Labour Government in the past fourteen years, placing emphasis on its ability to balance its budget and still pay off £50.000,000 of the country’s overseas debt, thus saving on the interest bill £2,500,000 a year. This was the first New Zealand Government to be able to pay its overseas debts. Yet that effort had been treated with suspicion by its opponents. “We have paid for the Maori war —if that makes any one more carefree and happy—and we have paid for the Dreadnought bought by a previous Government some years ago, and now lying at the bottom of the. sea,” said Mr Moohan. He dealt at length with the educational policy of the Government, the cost of which had increased from £3.000,000 to £13,000,000, thanks to improvement and increase in pupils. There were many more children attending many more schools than ever before, the new schools including some neat buildings in the Buller district. Some the taxation, approximately £13,000,000 was being used to further that policy,, also to keep the- five-year-olds at school, and to keep all pupils there longer, while it also cost a lot to keep more students in the universities. In the o l d day’s, just before Labour took over, children were being kept home from school because it cost too much for their parents to clothe and equip them. Mr Moohan asked if the National Party would reduce the taxation which provided £2 10s weekly for the 115,000 aged beneficiaries, also for 15,000 widows, and for 10,000 invalids who were receiving pensions. He said that if the Labour Government had done nothing else worthwhile in the eyes of some people, at least, should bo given the credit for assisting the invalids. Aptsrt from that, however, 254,000 families were receiving family' allowances, and 10,000 had free hospital attention and medical benefits every day' “You cannot fool the people about these things and they know that the taxes are being used to a good purpose,” added Air Moohan. “They have now forgotten the philosophy of fear which ’sent thousands of people to early' graves—the fear that they could not afford to be sick.’ Mr Moohan spoke of the prosperous times which the people were now going through, with an annual wage bill of £230,000,000, as compared with wages of £70,000,000 when Labour ttook over; and he proceeded to prove that the person who counted, the worker with a family' of two and more, was not being unduly taxed, but was on the contrary, in a better financial position than anyone could ever have thought possible a few years ago. “They' say that the people are getting too much money, but the mentality' of those who say so, is difficult to understand,” added the speaker. “Perhaps they feel that some ‘discipline’ is necessary for those thrifty people who have tuck- > ed away many thousands in saving banks. “The families in their homes are better off with 240,000 more radios than when Labour first took over; 260,000 more cars. 80,000 more telephones, and the desire for as many' more again, if they were available. There is vastly' more train patronage, more people going to the pictures and other entertainments; an increase in tobacco usage by' 40 per cent,, and the consumption of beer has been doubled added Mr Moohan. “There were 180,000 more electric ranges in the homes, and more than 212,000 water heaters, as compared with the 30,000 in 1935. Despite the fact that the use of electric power in New Zealand had been trebled in the past fourteen years, the old Government had claimed that this Dominion would be well served for electric power for many years to come. How wrong they were shown by the urgent demand now—with the Government rushing through with four major schemes, which would cost in the vicinity of £50,000,00 providingmore hydro-electricity.” Mr Moohan said that New Zealand’s rehabilitation policy was the finest in the world—with 8000 men settled on farms and as many' in businesses, while 11,000 had been provided with State houses, and 25 000 have been assisted, in purchasing new homes. The speaker commented also on Labour’s housing policy, whereby more homes had been built in the past fourteen years than ever had been imagined before that period, at the time when people just did not have the money' to buy', or even rent homes, and when there were whole streets of vacant houses in some districts. Now the State was not only building homes for persons with families, but for returned soldiers and aged pensioners. The speaker criticised various aspects of the Nationalist policy, including its reference to an overhaul of Government expenditure. He asked did that mean a reduction of salaries and the idea of encouraging pensioners to take up domestic work and other matters? He concluded by asking, for a mandate for the Labour Government to continue with its sound legislation of the past.