RESISTING POPULAR PRESSURE.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4228, 14 February 1921, Page 1

RESISTING POPULAR PRESSURE.

Mr Massey rightly alludes to the intimate connection between expenditure and taxation, and to the part played, by ,the people in forcing expenditure upon ,the Government. "Ever since the elections/ the Prime Minister says, "the' Government has been engaged in one continuous struggle against demands from all over the Dominion for increased expenditure." At the same time it has been seeking to reduce .the expenses of adminstration, and that not unsuccessfully, for Mr Massey expects to be able to sho^v later on that, during the present half year, the burden upon the tax-payer is being reduced "at the rate of several hundred's of thousands per annum." The war has left us with enormqus liabilities.: interest and sinking fund-on war loans, war pensions,'increased salaries and bonuses to meet the high cost of livingamounting to several millions per annum —and these liabilities can only be met by taxation. The payments on account of permanent charges, for instance, have increased by aye.-* £800,000 during .the eight monhts, this, including He,t additional interest an! pension payments, etc., while of the increases under the heading of "annual' appropriations," the Working Railways and Post and Telegraph services absorb some £928,484—m0re ,than half the total, and Education accounts for nearly another quarter million of the increase. And the money must b© found .to meet these increases, with others for which the people are continually pressing. The Government has 'instituted an economy campaign, but iri that campaign it must have the assistance of the people if it is to accomplisn any goovl.