MONEY AND WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 198, 23 July 1941, Page 7

MONEY AND WAR.

WELLINGTON, J.dv 23. The Government had said that there would never bo conscription of human life unless wealth was also conscripted, and it contended that taxation was the wav to conscript that wealth, said Mr Hodgens (Lab., Palmerston North), in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives. There could he no money sacrifice as great as the sacrifice of the wife, the mother, or the father of a soldier who gave his life. Yet the Leader of the Opposition dared to sav that, New Zealand had taxation in excess of taxation in some other part of the Empire “1 hope there will lie no full stop.” said Mr Hodgens. “If we go into the homes and take tbp young men. then, hv all the powers that stand behind Government, lot us enter the oags and sec that they make their due and proper contribution.” In five and a-half years the Labour Government had created order out of chaos, he claimed. To-day certain groups were clamouring for the cutting of hours and wages. “If we give way to tVat the very thing we are fighting for is gone,” said Mr Hodgens. “Our hoys are now in uniform fighting—for what? To conserve the interests of those who make profits and dividends, or to protect the 40-hour week and the standard of living, to ensure' that things are made safe in New Zealand for those who remain here n’_d for themselves when they come back?”