HEAVY TAXATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21247, 29 July 1932, Page 11

HEAVY TAXATION

BURDEN ON INDUSTRIES ! BETTER OUTLOOK OVERSEAS CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE Comment on the adverse effects of heavy Taxation on industry was made by Mr. 11. J. Kelleher, managing director of Dominion Breweries, Limited, at the annual meeting of shareholders yesterday. He expressed the opinion that if present indications were at all reliable better and brighter limes might be looked forward to in the near future. Mr. Kellilier said that had the Governnient shown as much ingenuity and enterprise in devising ways and means of solving the problem of the unemployed by providing reproductive work at a living wage as it; had shown in devising ways and means of extracting money from the taxpayers, the country's problems would have been speedily solved. The people of New Zealand were contributing the best part of £4,000,000 a year toward unemployment, and this huge sum was being spent without any definite plan or policy and almost without any effort being made to provido sound and reproductive work. Heavy taxation was crippling many industries and was greatly reducing the spending power of the consumer. It must bo obvio.us that if the revenue from such taxation was being unsoundly and injudiciously spent, the burden became doubly heavy and unemployment must be aggravated rather than improved. "If the Government persists in its present policy the only relief we can look for must come from overseas, and indications in this direction are fortunately much brighter than they have been for some time," said Mr. Kelleher. "The wonderful success of England's huge 3£ per cent conversion scheme may be taken as a sure sign of returning confidence; the drop in the Bank of England rate to 2 per cent is an infallible indication of cheaper and more plentiful money, which means better prices for our primary products; while the success of the Lausanne Conference in abolishing reparations, if followed by a corresponding cancellation of war debts, will act as a strong stimulant to international trade and commerce. Lastly, the Ottawa Conference, by bringing about a sounder and closer system of industrial and financial co-operation throughout the British Commonwealth, should nt>t only assure a dependable market for our exports but a more remunerative price for our products. It seems that there is every prospect of an early revival of trade generally, and I think we can confidently look-forward to better and brighter times in the not far distant future."