VIEWS ON REPORT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 370, 11 March 1932, Page 7

VIEWS ON REPORT.

“ Taxation Charges Must be Reduced.” SAVINGS JUSTIFIED. “ You cannot make omelets without breaking eggs! Quite a lot of peoplei may object to those portions of the report which affect them and curtail their privileges, or even their rights, but once agree on the fact that our charges on taxation are much too high and cannot be met to-day without drastic economies, and you give the Commission its entire case,” said Mr W. Machin, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, when asked for his comments on the Economy Commission’s interim report. “ Speaking broadly,” he continued, “ all the economies it suggests are essential because of our present lower taxable capacity in New Zealand, and the Commission says it has tried to spread the adjustments equitably with a view to a general levelling down of the costs of production. There may be details which will require some adjustment, but I’m surprised at the amount of detailed work and examination which the Commission must have gone through in order to make such comprehensive suggestions for economies in a first report. “ The recital of the curtailment of the privileges of members of Parliament in allowances, postages, etc., is intriguing. Probably few of us knew that the members of Parliament had such privileges and nobody will shed a tear over the curtailment of a few of them. Doubtless the members will object less to this economy than to the other one of curtailing the number of members themselves. “ What the public want to knew immediately, however, is whether Parliament is going to put these suggestions into force now that they have been made. Everybody is in a state of uncertainty and anxiety and the report is bound to slow down all kinds of business even more. Parliament's duty is an urgent one to decide and decide quickly what it will do so that the necessary economies having been made we may all act upon them and march steadily forward towards the reconstruction they make possible.”