MR MASSEY INTERVIEWED.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLI, Issue 5634, 24 April 1909, Page 4

MR MASSEY INTERVIEWED.

PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENTS CRITICISED.

The subject of the mortgage tax is one in which the 'leader of the Opposition takes very keen interest, and the correspondent of the 0.1). Times asked him on Saturday for his views on tli? matter. He replied 1 that when the Lend and Income Tax Bill was 1 before the House in 1907 ho had said: " I do not suggest Uhat the money i invested on mortgage should escape taxation, but according to the prnient law we are penalising the man who lemlSj. money by way pf mortgage, ah'ct'it is not a fair ! or right athing to do. lam certain it would pay the Government over and over, again to givp \ip tJie small revenue gained from mortgages tax, amd let interest on mortgage count as income for the purpose of the income tax." Mr Massey remarked, after reading die extract referred to, that the mortgage tax tended to make money dearer to the borrower, and>also it prevented money being sent to the country for investment. Tihe recent statement of the j^rirne Minister that in the last twelve months the Government had only borrowed between £90,000 and £100.--000 in the Dominion wias referred to Mr Masso\' who replied tihat the accounts fo^rthe twelve lraonths wore not published, but if tihe Government had only borrowed that sum it wns because it had previously drained' the Dominion dry. He had not the actual figures, but the borrowing tihrougih the _'oat Office Savings Bank alono must have averaged a million in each of the last chree years. It j was- mere quibbling for the Treasurer to' talk as v he did, because the Government had been borrowing large sums in tlie Dominion flor years, and to that extent was responsible for the scarcity of money. v Referring to the fiaianoial position and the proposals for reorganisation of the public service, Mr Massey says that only a few rmontJis. ago, when 1 the elections were going on, the iMme Minister stated tdrat the financial stringency which was affecting other countries wp«W not affect Not Zealand, and tfooßo who held a?^tJ expressed different opinions the Prime Minister sneeied at as pescimists. But even this couaitry oould not go on piling up its expenditure as it had be»ai doing for yeans past. He (Mr Massey) was only afraid now that the day of reckoning appeared to be at hand, tiha* masny of the innocent would suffer, and tihat those who were really responsible for the trouble would escape. He knew the position must be faced and he would say, si caking for the Opposition members,, that they would assist in giving ef; feet to a well-tdwigiht-out scheme of reorganisation and retrenchment, by. which the efficiency of the services would not be impaired and no injustice contemplated, but he hoped what was happening would induce the people of the country to assist in some better system _ being brought into operation by whioh unscrupulous politicians would not be able to use the public service for their cwn selfish ends. iAt present, added the Opposition Leader, the most prosperous department of tihe State appeared to be the Land and Income Tax Depart1 ment, owing to the manner in which, the values had oeen forced up. and he expressed the opinion that tho increase in land tax for 'tihe present year would satisfy even the single tax colleagues of the Prime Minister, and ought to show, if anything would, to the country people particularly, the trend of the present policy.