POINTS OF VIEW

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3800, 26 August 1936, Page 5

POINTS OF VIEW

OPINIONS OF OUR READERS. TAXING AGED PEOPLE. Sir, —I shall be glad if you will publish this copy of an open letter which 1 have forwarded to the Prime Minister: — ~I have waited for some considerable time in the hope that something would be done to relieve the- class which I represent from the excessive, and in some instances most cruel, burdens we are bearing. Instead of finding any assistance the treatment is becoming even harsher in its incidence. It is for this reason that I am writing to you on the subject. I have noted your statements to the effect that the aim of your party and Government is to secure good conditions of living for the general mass of people in the Dominion. While that is being effected in the case of some classes and individuals, in my case, and the thousands ot cases pimilar to my own (many very much worse)-, the very reverse is taking place. We find our savings depleted, the load of higher charges becoming heavier, and our last years charged with distress and worry instead of the little comforts we have a right to expect. Our purchasing power is constantly decreasing, while many of us look forward with a sense of fear', wondering what may happen to us next. “In regard to all who. have benefited by restoration of cuts, higher wages or salaries, and other rises, from the slough of depression, we have only kindly sentiment, wishing them all 'good luck." Meantime we are still down in the pit, arid pre being pushed further down. By 1 way of explanation, l am a man over. 7# years ot age, with my wife to maintain. I have worked over 54 years in New Zealand. My wife has been, hard working and saving. I have been ip many, different occupations, sometimes with a pick and other times with a pen. Our struggles have been hard but never without heart. From these 50 odd years we secured just enough to keep us in very moderate comfort. My whole income falls "a good deal below the 16s a day standard. After all, we are near the top of the class I am representing. I know those who are down to £2, 35s and 30s a week to keep the old couple, , and they have been cut, cut and" are still being dealt with in the same way They are taxed for the unemployed while unemployed themselves, being beyond the years for work. "What class, you may ask, is this? It is those whose meagre savings are invested. The returns from these investments are the sole source of income. You know, sir, that these re l turns have been cut again and again by legal enactment. You know that the contracts they made were torn up to their detriment. I have suffered, in this way, four distinct cuts —all due to the action of Parliament. “We looked for some little betterment when the slump was over, but cur class is worse off than, ever? The restoration on interest rates and rents to what they stood at before the depression would afford us some relief, but I quite understand you are opposed to that on grounds of policy, and accept the position. I put it to you, however, whether the time is not overdue where the men and women on whose behalf I am writing should not be relieved entirely from payment ot the unemployment tax, which is for them simply an income tax on their meagre resources. I make the appeal to you, and to your _ Government, that you bring down legislation to amend the Act and ■abolish the imposition of this tax on min'arid women ot 60 years of age and over, and whose income from all sources do not exceed £2lO per year for a man and wife, with a limitation of residence if necessary. I urge this on grounds that it is a cruel (ay on the old colonists who bore the brunt'before many of the younger men and women saw New Zealand; 'that it is' unnecessary to draw revenue • from such a source, and that these old citizens have in relation to their means suffered more than all others by the depression.

“Sir, in sending this letter, to _ypu I am not appending my own name'<or the reason that I am not appealing on my own behalf, but on behalf of the thousands I herein refer to. Any answer written would reach me through the Dominion. I am further taking the liberty of sending a copy -of this letter to the Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, tindto Mr R. A. Wright, M.P. (for the Independent members, appealing to them also, to support an amendment of the law in this direction I have asked for. It would be a most highly honourable and gracious act were Parliament unanimously to accord this relief to the old people who have saved - the country the need of pensioning them; who seek not charity but wish'.to be left with what they honestly earned and saved.”—l am, etc., J. CARRICK. Wellington.

ARGENTINE AND BEEF, Sir, —Britain has given notice to Argentine that the trade agreement which has been in existence for some three years will be terminated on November 7. This must give concern to the South American State, for the essence of it is a reminder that Argentina is dependent largely, on the British market. The new British policy is the imposition of three-far-things per pound on foreign beef, while the Empire production is to be admitted free. So far as we are concerned, it is to be hoped for our pepqe of mind, Australia turns her attention to supplying chilled beef to the British market and allows‘.her butter supply to remain stationary. All the beef we can supply has little bearing on the question. Naturally Argentina must seek a way out of the new difficulty. She may take the place of United States in the production of wheat, for which her vast lands are eminently suitable. She may turn to butter and cheese, and seek a market in North America. The question of over-production is a world problem, and the competitive sysem of diamond cut diamond is a perpetual and far-reaching worry.—l am, etc., EMPIRE.