IF PROHIBITION IS CARRIED

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 286, 9 December 1914, Page 6

IF PROHIBITION IS CARRIED

[PFBLIBHED BY AhBANGEMENT.]

WHO WILL PAY THE EXTRA

TAXATION

MR PHILIP SNOWDEN SAYS, "THE WORKING CLASSES.'' MORE TAXATION—AND THE WORKERS WILL HAVE TO PAY. The revenue from the liquor industry in New Zealand is approxi- ! mately £1,170,000 per annum, and 1 that pays all the old age pensions— j 16,000—the total cost of our hospis tals, all the charitable aid, and the ] total outlay on police and prisons. 1 The Prohibitionists contribute nothing i to the revenue of the country through ; tfie liquor industry. Are Mr Snow- • den's present paymasters prepared to ! tax themselves to provide the "compensating" revenue he speaks about? : Never. Suppose all the people of j this country were to become teetotal, i what would happen P ] Mr Snow den asked this very quesi tion in the House of Commons on .; June 2nd, 1913. Let the working classes of New Zealand note Mr / Snowden's question and answer: — . ] "Mr Snowden: Suppose every ]■ working man in the country became ; teetotal, what would happen?" \ As a Member of the House of {Commons, representing the workers of I Blackburn, he .answered his own questipn- thus: : ' ' ""We should hare the Chancellor of the Exchequer standing at the table next (j^ear and proposing some .other ( form of indirect taxation whichwxmld make the people, who had hitherto been contributing by the liquor contributioii, "contribute through a tax upon some other commodity which was in, common use amongst the working classes."' ■"..'■ Tlwt was Mr.Snowden. the servant of Demos, speaking. The working • classes were then his concern. The > Prohibitionists - want to throw away ' £1,200.000 in revenue, and Mr Snowden tells them that the necessary taxation to recoup the State Will fall upon the working classes.