UNEMPLOYMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 508, 10 November 1928, Page 10

UNEMPLOYMENT

MEN WHO FAIL TO REGISTER GOVERNMENT’S DIFFICULTIES “It is a principle of this country not to tax both capital and income.” said Mr. Frank Adeane, Reform candidate for Auckland West, speaking at Herne BAy last evening. “Therefore,” he continued, “we do not tax the income of the large landowners, but only their land. And, let me tell you. a few years ago many of them would have been glad if things had been the other way round. They always had their land to be taxed, but sometimes they didn’t have any income.” Mr. Adeane admitted that the last few years had been a most difficult period for New Zealand, but he denied that this was in any way due to the Reform Government. It was simply the result of the phenomenal boom which took place after the war. “At least,” he said, “I belieye we have reached a position of financial stability, and I place that to the credit of the work the Reform Party has done in the last three years.” He agreed that unemployment in New Zealand was a very serious question, but said it was not a New Zealand problem so much as a world problem. He criticised very strongly the unemployed men who failed to so down to the Labour Bureau and register their names. It was impossible for the Government to take steps to relieve unemployment unless it knew how many cases it had to deal with. In answer to a question, Mr. Adeane said that he was most decidedly in favour of the telegraphing of money for investment on the totalisator. Gambling was inherent in the Englishman’s character, and it was better that the Government should receive its share of revenue from the totalisator than that people should go to the bookmakers, whom everyone knew existed, and bet in a hole-and-corner kind of way. The meeting, on the whole, was fairly friendly, though there was one persistent interjector who had to be cautioned by the police. No motion was put at the end of Mr. Adeane’s speech, but the applause showed the feeling of the audience.