THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1944 SUBSIDY CIRCLE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32519, 20 December 1944, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1944 SUBSIDY CIRCLE

How stabilisation of costs needs subsidies and how subsidies mean higher ‘taxation and how higher taxation can be the negation of stabilisation is shown in the revealing information from the. War Expenses Account. Already the account has paid out £3,473,000 in subsidies this year and the total for the full financial year is expected to be £5,436,116. That figure must come out of the taxpayers’ pockets now or in the future as the burden of New Zealand’s debt is met.

The range and cost of the subsidy system are remarkable, and although it is true that stabilisation is made possible by such a system, the manner in which its roots have reached to every sphere of activity shows how artificially controlled the wartime economic system has become and how difficult it may be to tear out the roots after the War. From air services to cow covers and from harbour boards to men’s hats, the generous hand of the subsidiser is felt. The fact that there is justification in the war emergency for this system does not alter the fact that under it some New Zealand manufacturers and producers may be lulled into the belief that they are producing efficiently and cheaply by world standards. A subsidy tends to encourage industrial complacency if it is applied without due regard to the merits of the assisted industry or enterprise.