Patea & Waverley Press FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1931. ‘TAX ’EM, THEY’LL PAY.”

Patea Mail, Volume LII, 6 March 1931, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1931. ‘TAX ’EM, THEY’LL PAY.”

pi IB aciion of tin- (lovernment in lUrlhcr taxing by the increase in postal rales, an already overtaxed community is not one that; wi.il commend itself to many. The extra taxation has come at a most inopportune time, seeing that the incomes of the large majority of the people have been seriously afI'ceted either directly or indirect,y by the. drop in the-value of the country’s staple products. The time was one for assisting the people struggling to keep their heads above water and prevent themselves being overwhelmed by 1 lie oimishing tide of depression, instead of adding to the burden round their necks and causing them to sink. The claim that the extra funds are needed to (‘liable the Budget to be balanced is manifestly ridiculous, as the financial year ends on the 01st of the present month, and the few extra pounds derived from the increased postal rates from now onward until the year closes will have no effect on this year’s Budget. Before imposing the extra taxation it would have been well to have waited until the financial year had ended and then arranged for an adjustment of the country’s finances after the actual deficit had been ascertained. In budgeting for the next year’s receipts and expenditure the Government could very easily have taken a slatesmanlike view of the position and realising tlu* state of the foruiues of the people due to the causes we have mentioned, set to work to see how taxation could be reduced, instead of being increased at this most inopportune time. The action of the Government in adding to the people’s burdens as they have by the increase in the postal rates, the imposition of the poll tax for unemployment relief, and the increase in other means of taxation, stamps them as being the most unstatesmanlike, the most unbusinesslike, and the most incapable of any Government that !ms ever occupied the Trea ■ * benches in this country. A business man when he finds that he cannot make ends meet does not proceed to put up the prices of his goods and compel his customers to pay more until he has thoroughly overhauled his expenditure and seen whore economies can be effected. Has the present Government done this? The answer is emphatically “No.” Beyond taking away one-twentieth of the pittance granted to Training College students to enable them to feed and clothe themselves whilst at the college and making a ten per cent, reduction in the salaries of the highly paid and poorly paid Civil Servants alike, the Government has done practically nothing to reduce its expenditure. There is no doubt whatever that what is crippling this country as much as anything a.t the present time is the heavy cost of Government, a cost out of all proportion to the country’s population. When the fact is considered that there are fewer people in the whole of the country. Maoris and Europeans combined. than there are in two towns in Britain, such as Liverpool and Manchester, there can be no question that, the country is over-governed. Run efficiently, the various Stale Departments could undertake the duties at pre-

.wnt being ciin-ied out by the iuultifarioiis and costly bodies such as the various control boards and kindred institutions. The tact that the Government spent >ut of the Consolidated .Fund iast year no less than £25,200.<•'■B2 goes to show that economies on the expenditure side should have been effected before tin luxation burden was still fiirthe; added to. The High Commissioner’s Office, with its staff of immigration officials employed when immigration is practically at a standstill, could surely do with an overhaul, and the fact that in this country, with, as we have Hated, less than the population of two English towns, spends out of its Consolidated Fund no less than £428,233 for Public Service superannuation purposes, requires rather more than earnest consideration. There is no hiding or disguising the fact that the people of this country are both overgoverned and over-taxed and the long looked for ‘back to normal’ state, which is tantamount to a state of happiness and prosperity, will never arrive unless and until (here is in office a Government strong enough and capable enough of reducing the taxation per head of population (£l3 3s 7d last year) to something in keeping with the number of the people and their capacity to pay. A Government that thinks of nothing but increasing the burdens of those who are already suffering from sadly depicted incomes does not deserve to occupy the Treasury benches for a longer period than it takes to move Hm necessary vote of no confidence to enable them to tie removed. The time for legislating on tin principle of ‘tax ’em. they’ll pay’ has -surely passed.