PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Fortieth Year of Publications. ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1915.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13208, 27 September 1915, Page 4

PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Fortieth Year of Publications. ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1915.

ONLY upon the supposition that they desire to play up to the gallery of their supporters can one account for the oft-uttered demand of some Labour members for a census of wealth. They must surelj know that all the information that could possibly bp procured by such a census is already available in the returns made to the Taxing Department. The information has also been obtained by more searching methods than those of the old property tax, and it is more reliable because it can be checked. The landtax returns disclose all particulars respecting wealth held in landed property, also of mortgages held, and the income tax returns disclose all means by which income is earned. Anything that is not covered by or included in these is obviously not wealth in the taxable sense, for all other must be unproductive and therefore of , no utility. So far as wealth is con- i cerned, if the Ministry desired to im- j pose further taxation upon it, all they , need to do is to refer the matter to , the Tax Commissioner's Department,

which possesses all the necessary in- j formation. The national register that ;! aims at ascertaining the capabilities j of workers may be objectionable, but the capabilities of wealth are already known in every detail. We question whether the results of national registration will justify the cost of ob- | taining it, and must confess to suspi- I cion that the real intent of this has \ not yet become visible. Our Ministry j may have no special object in view, i ' and they probably merely copied the J j British example, but there are reasons j ! to suspect a design behind the regis- i j tration in the Home country. j

IN the ideal State which may be developed in the distant future, no person will be alowed to take part in its management ontil he has passed an examination in political economy,

so that he may be able to judge what the effect of any political action must be. t In this country, for many years past, the affairs of State have been managed by those who utterly disregard not only the principles of political economy, but the lessons of history, a - fl New Zealand has been a "corpus vile" for political quacks and legislative charlatans. One result has been to deprive the people of any benefit that woulcr otherwise be de-

rivable from increased production or more economical methods of working, and instead of these reducing the cost of living, it In.s been raised until it has become oppressive to the m&u of small means. The chief, indeed, almost the sole, cause of the enormous increase in the cost of living has been the artificial increase through the agency of the customs tariff, which affects everything even the articles on which there is nominally no duty. It is a fallacy to assume that a reduction or abolition of the duties on what are called "the necessaries of life" will reduce the cost of living, for this can have no appreciable effect if other restrictive duties are allowed to continue in operation. It is also farcical as well <is lamentably impotent, to appoint Food Commissions to fix prices, which must always in the main be regulated by the law of supply and demand in the markets of the world. We regret to notice that our Premier expressed incredulity when told that the increase in the price of butter was not the work -of the merchant or the retailer, because this showed he had not given proper thought to the subject, or he would have realised that the price in the Lon. don market governs the price in New Zealand. For all practical purposes his Food Commission is useless; indeed, it is more likely to do harm than good. It cannot possibly alter the operation of the law of supply and demand, but it may do some mischief in trying to control it.

WAR is wasteful—horribly and tremendously wasteful —of both life, which cannot be replaced, and of property. which can. But the many nj.illions of money that it is costing are not lost—they have simply changed their course and got into hands. For instance, a large proportion of the money the Allies are obtaining from America will go to the munitions makers and employees, and all will make at least some profit, so tuat the bulk of the m-oney will once again iind its way to trade and investment. The money that represents value is still in existence and, in a sense, even that which has been spent upon shells to slay Germans and Turks has not been wasted, for it uas not only been put to good or beneficial use, but has given employment to the people in the factories. The Allies also have the satisfactory knowledge that in the end the enemy will pay for all the cost.