The Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1938. The Unemployment Tax

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 39, 16 February 1938, Page 4

The Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1938. The Unemployment Tax

Daily, an increasing body of citizens are demanding 'c know why, when the Dominion’s prosperity is declared to Lu record-breaking, they should be still mulcted of 8d in the £ and £1 a year levy. Why should this “emergency” unemployment relief taxation still be held on when our Ministers assure the electors that they have reduced the problem of unemployment to negligible proportions?

During the past week two statements have been given from official sources. First came the January 15 unemployment return. Therein it was stated that there had been a 15.360 reduction compared with a year before. The following numbers were then listed: —Registered but not on relief, 1051; on sustenance, unlit for employment, 8000; on sustenance, awaiting placement, 4178; on Scheme No. 5, relief, 2827; total, 16,056.

From these figures it is to be judged that unemployment has been diminished by almost 50 per cent, in the past year. Of the numbers now listed above, 1051 arc not oil relief and so only 15,005 are a charge upon the funds. Were all these men to receive an average of £2 weekly, their relief would require just £1,560,000 per annum; that is about one-third of the present taxation being levied.

The expenditure does not stop there, unfortunately. For the four-weekly period ending January 15, no less than £178,415 was spent under the heading, “promotion of employment.” At an average rate of £44,600 weekly that is equivalent to £2,300,000 annually. To what industries is this subsidising going, how many employees are affected and to what degree are their wages being subsidised?

A truly prosperous country docs not require that its employment be subsidised. Either there is something seriously amiss with our economic health or else the system is an unnecessary affliction iipon a too long suffering public. The whole question of unemployment taxation and expenditure calls for a full and detailed statement by a responsible Minister. The position is not at all clear and the public are entitled to have it clarified.