ESTABLISHED 1886. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JUNE 8 1915. THAT WAR TAX.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 133, 8 June 1915, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1886. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JUNE 8 1915. THAT WAR TAX.

It would seem, from a communique —the- term is now quite familiar "to newspaper readers—made by Mr Massey to a- Wellington journal, that the Prime Minister has been somewhat misrepresented in the published reports of certain remarks wliieh fell ■•from him the other day at Auckland on the subject of the .mtteh-<]iscussed war tax. According to the. first report, the Prime Minister was credited with having declared, in answer to a •deputation from the Sports Protection 'League, . that. there would be no ■special war taxation this year. Mr ;Massey now explains that what he did was that the Dominion was in ■such a'good position financially that, if it were necessary, the levying of .a war tax could be held over for a yea*-., and that he had then informed the deputation that he did not think it would'be wise or advisable to postpone the extra taxation. The Prime Minister has now supplemented his original statement by declaring that h<e had endeavored to remove a misapprehension from the minds of the deputation. '"They were," he told his Wellington interviewer, "under- the impression, so it seetned, that the cost of New Zealand's share of the war, many millions a year, was to he collected in the form of extra taxation. I explained that wli.it the taxpayers would be asked to find would be interest and sinking fund on the war loans, a very different matter." Mr Massey added that the proposals of tho Government -with regard to taxation would be brought forward by the Minister, for Finance at the pnjjKT time, I

■]Tt is a pity tiiat the Prime Minister did not insist nnon fioein£ tx proof of the i-nport which found its way into the Auckland papers, for it is of the utmost importance that the public by under no misponooption,

even of a temporary nature, as to the exact situa'tiori with "regard to the special war taxation which, as every sensible man knows full.well, must be authorised by' the new Parliament when it meets at' the end' of this month. The numerous letters which have appeared in the press, from one end of the Dominion to the other, on the vexed problem of what farm tho war taxation should take prove how widely and deeply the subject is engaging public attention. It is, however, absurd to expect that the Government will make known its exact intentions on the matter until Parliament meets, and the best thing that Mr Massey and his Ministers can do is to say nothing at all, either in answer to this or that deputation or in any other way. We may depend upon it that the war taxation will come quite early enough for most people, and there is r no good purpose to be served by "trying to force the hands of Ministers by endeavoring to make out a case why this, that, or the other particular interest 'should go scot free of financial responsibility in connection with New Zealand's share in the war. If the- proposed taxation be not conceived on just lines, we may rest-assured that the Opposition will do-its duty aiid 'make it impossible for any unfairness to be shown to any one class or another of the community.