WAR BUDGET BURDENS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23721, 30 July 1940, Page 9

WAR BUDGET BURDENS

PROTEST BY RAILWAYM EN [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON. Monday The . following resolution was passed at a large and representative meeting of the Wellington branch of the Amalgamated Soeietv of Railway Servants of New Zealand: —"That this meeting protests to the Government against the introduction of a Budget which places the burden of the war on the workers, and demands that conscription of wealth be made a reality, and the present budgeted taxation on workers bo abandoned." The Wellington branch of the Enginedrivers, Firemen and Cleaners' Association has unanimously passed a resolution protesting against "unwarranted and unfair attacks on the pockets of wage-earners" by the imposition of the national security tax, and urging the national executive of the Labour Party to request the Minister of Finance immediately to review the question with a view to giving effect to the Labour Party's pledge of the conscription of wealth for war emergency purposes. The resolution protests against locomotive men being required to pay this tax until the Cabinet has agreed to the recommendations in full of the tribunal set up to hear the association's claims for an increase in wages, and against the Government applying the tax prior to the Court delivering its decision in reference to the application for an increase in wages to meet the increased cost of living.