TROUBLES OF MR. LANG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19415, 25 August 1926, Page 14

TROUBLES OF MR. LANG.

BALANCING THE BUDGET. DIFFERENCES IN THE CAUCUS. [FROM OtTB OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] - SYDNEY. Aug. 14. There is much speculation in political circles as to how the Premier and Treasurer, Mr. Lang, proposes to balance his next Budget. The only increase in taxation which would receive the support of Caucus would be a stiffening of the incidence on salaries over £750 a year, such as was proposed by Mr. Lang when he was Treasurer in the last Labour Government. Another suggestion is the increase of betting taxes in the metropolitan area. The licensing of Btarting price betting shops, with the imposition of a betting ticket tax on such establishments is saicl also to be not .without its supporters. In the meantime the Minister for Health, Mr. Cann, is puzzling his brains to devise an equitable scheme of financing the hospitals. /Possibly the Government will yield to the pressure of some of its supporters and adopt the principle of the Golden Casket, especially as a special hospital levy, on top of the increased taxation that seems inevitable would not be immensely popular. . The Premier probably sighs sometimes for the lost happiness of his humbler days. He not only has to meet a storm of criticism outside the party and no small measure of criticism within it, arising out of some of . the Government's recent. legislative and other acts, but it is declared that he has, in caucus, troubles which may be attended by something of a struggle. Every Labour Premier, of course, has his trials iu caucus. Mr. McGowen, Mr. Holman, before he went over to the Nationalists, Mr. Dooley and others in this State have all had to face them. The forthcoming session is likely to be a crowded and somewhat stormy one. The, Opposition, for example, is not likely to allow the appointment of Mr. Kay, a former independent member, to the Meat Board to pass without making the most of it, especially as it has the great bulk of the public and not a few even in the Labour Party-behind it on this matter. If the Government is wise it,- will leave alone any further industrial for the end of its present term and try to recover some of the ground that it must obviously have lost in the country.