Untitled

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12085, 24 June 1920, Page 4

ON the effect of borrowing tbe Gazette remarks: —"Borrowing, whether here or in London, most result in increased taxation being imposed, unless the community insist upon cutting out all , waste in the administration of the departments, and confining itself to its legitimate task of governing the country, in maintaining law and order. The expenditure by the Go vernment has bean advancing by leaps and bounds. Figures are given in support of this statement and the article proceeds: "In six vears the expenditure has more than doubled, the„actual increase being £11,956,061, and of this £8,661,636 has been the increase in the past two years. The permanent charges ?*jr the year ended March 31st, 1920, absorb £11,389,461, or nearly equal to the total expenditure in 1914. It would be ridiculous to say that economies cannot be made, for it is absurd to suppose that the Government requires to spend at the rate of £23 per head to carry on the Government. During the war, ana since, departments have been multiplied on the flimsiest excuse, and on no excuse whatever, and. money has been expended lavishly. Tbe Government has been able to obtain money too easily by way of loans, and the people have submitted'to very heavy taxation, and the Government has spent the money lavishly, lit is time to call a halt, for the economic conditions are undergoing a change, and the probability is that the revenue will shrink. We have to remember that the purchase of our exportable primary products will cease in respect to wool and meat at the close of June, and butter and cheese will be free at the end of July. No one can forecast the market prospects for these products, but it is safe to pre- ,

diet that wool and meat will be very much lower, and cheese, too, may not come up to the expectations of producers. There is some hope for butter. The broad fact remains that the returns to the producers will be very much less during the next two or three years than they have been during the Imperial commandeer, and their reduced income will be reflected throughout the community. The reduced spending power must also affect the Treasury, for the income tax must be less, and the Government cannot afford to relinquish a penny of the revenue that it received during the past financial year. There is thus every prospect of increased taxation in the near i'uture unless steps are taken now to effect economics."

WE congratulate Foxton Borough Councillors on evolving somethingpractical and making a suggestion that if adopted would be of great benefit to the State. The idea of saving distance by rail by linking up Marton or Greatford and Levin has long been in men's minds, and the proposed deviation in Palmerston has given additional reason for this to be done. The traffic would, of course, ber- relieved, so that there would be no longer any necessity to incur expenditure of nearly a quarter of a million in trying to make the Palrnersfcon line carry tho traffic, while at the same ti v "* '«-"Q8 of the through journey between Wellington and Auckland would Le greatly shortened. We have no doubt that this scheme will be violently opposed by some of those it would really benefit, but we trust that all interested will bring pressure to boar to have saving both in time and money effected.