Dominion’s High Taxation

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 48, 26 February 1938, Page 3

Dominion’s High Taxation

“CAN ONLY BE REGARDED AS APPALLING." COMAIENT BY HON. J. G. COBBE AT FEILDING. "Taxation has now reached a figure that can only bo regarded as appalling” said the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, M.P., Oroua, when, addressing the electors at the Drill Hall, Feilding, last evening. "The Public Works estimates for the coming year have alone reached the colossal sum of £17,367,000, t>r a daily expenditure of £55,485 for each of the 313 working days. Our total direct

taxation is now £30,338,000, which, in the year, with the addition of the unemployment tax of £5180,000 makes a total of £35,518,000 or a daily tax of £113,476 for each of the 313 working days in the year. The Aleat Board returns for the past year show that the total export value of our moat, wool, tallow and sundries connected with our live stock industry, was £33,230,425 or £2,287,575 less than our taxation.

"It is a sound economic truth that taxation which lessens the efficiency of an employer and prevents him from giving tho employment he would otherwise have given is nationaL suicide. The figures I have quoted show plainly the country is committed to an enormous expenditure for tho coming year especially for Public Works, some of which are of doubtful value, but will nevertheless add to tho burdon to be borne by the long-suffering taxpayer. But side by side with the prospect,of increased taxation we are faced with every indication that with the exception of dairy produce the oversea prices for our exportable primary products, from which practically the whole of our national income comes, will be considerably lower than those of last year. (While at the present time all our costs arc rising). In the face of a probable falling market there are only two ways in which our tremendous expenditure can be met—unless we borrow outside. The one method is by means of such heavy taxation as will cripple farming and other industries. The other, and the more likely method, is by the issue of an excessive amount of paper money; which, will not add a single penny to the real wealth of the Dominion but will lead to a great increase in the cost of living. "In the December issue of that important English Magazine, The Fortnightly, under the heading, "New Zealand Socialistic Experiment," the writer expresses tho opinion that as the result of tho policy being pursued, there is no escape for New Zealand from rising costs and prices, and concludes as follows: “New Zealand will enter a period of rising (retail) prices and so long as the reserves of the Reserve Bank last New Zealand will have a great time because there will be no lack of internal money to finance the inflation. But once the reserves are depleted the Government's only course will be to create money, and that will mean unsupported inflation, and costs will thfen rise to unprecedented heights."

"Excessive taxation and oppressive class legislation will drive out the very people who are worth most to the country, those who have done most to increase the country's wealth. I think it was Disraeli who said:—‘To tax a community for the benefit of a class is not Statesmanship, it is plunder.' It may be that the excessive taxation (of more than 8£ million pounds above the 1935-36 estimate) is designed to serve a double purpose. First to meet the reckless expenditure of the Government, and secondly to carry out the plan recommended in a book entitled "A Summary of Socialism," which says:—"lt will be necessary eventually to eliminate the ri|ch, but this can be done gradually, over a period of time, by means of taxation. The main thing is to get the industry of the country out of private hands and to ensure that the resources of the country are put to social uses. This cannot be done too soon.” It seems to me the present Government are not losing much time, they are "right on the job." "At this stage one may pause and ask why is the Government, by the aid of a compliant majority, forcing upon the freedom-loving people of New Zealand tho fetters of dictatorship, the shackles of State Control, am? the smothering weight of crude and harassing regulations. Is their action due to a foolish optimism which has reached the stage of giddy recklessness, and under the influence of which they have thrown away the dictates of prudence? Or are they foolish enough to think the people of New Zealand are going to prostrate themselves beneath the wheels of a Juggernaut copied from Moscow plans? Attempts are being made to-day to wipe out our freedom and subordinate our liberty to the dictation of a Socialist party. The farmer, the manufacturer and the business man are being gradually controlled by the State. Formerly the produce) stock or goods produced belonged to the producer or the buyer, they were his own to dispose of as he thought fit. v To-day they may be disposed of as a Socialistic Government thinks fit.

"I do not know of any other part of the British Empire where such nighhanded despotism exists. Why has New Zealand become the victim of dictatorship? Have we lost our spirit, has our freedom been buried, is personal liberty a thing of the past? We, or our parents, left the old land with its hoary traditions, ancient usages and limited opportunities, and in this new land made our homes under what we then rightly regarded as greater freedom, wider opportunity and more liberal conditions. There has grown up in those homes a race of young New Zealanders, healthy, well-edueatect. freedom-loving and strong. But side by side with the material advancement of our people, there lias crept into our land a sinister element from overseas, subversive of religion, honesty and morality; this has come partly through the false teaching of unprincipled, self-seeking demagogues, and partly through the importation of vicious literature filled with the corrupt doctrines of Russian and German Socialists.

"Every intelligent New Zealander, taking the slightest interest in public affairs, knows that the present Government is a Socialist Government of an advanced type. Socialism is the enemy

of freedom, and dictatorship is the final objective of the revolutionary Socialist. Alussolini was first an advanced Socialist, but when a split took place in the ranks of the Italian Socialists he saw his chance and is now a Fascist dictator. "I have enough faith in the common sense, free spirit, courage and vital principles of the people of New Zealand, to believ e that they will not be foolish enough to be led away by the honeyed-phrases, flattering nonsense and adroit fictions of smooth-tongued Socialists who would lead our people away from the sound principles of rectitude, industry, and truth upon which our Emp ire has been founded and through which it has prospered and become great."