The Waipawa Mail. THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1917. CURRENT TOPICS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7922, 23 August 1917, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1917. CURRENT TOPICS.

A Word in Season.

The Liberty Loan is a direct appeal to the patriotism of the people. No one is asked to make a sacrifice. As a contemporary points out: In this loan appeal, we are not asked to give at all, but merely to lend on terms that offer the best security and an annual return on the investment that can scarcely be bettered in any other direction. Surely the patriotism of the people will be more than equal to this demand upon its sincerity and earnestness. We are on the high road to victory, but every step of our advance costs money, and it goes without saying that money is just as important as men. It provides the pay of the men, it feeds and clothes them, and it furnishes munitions. Therefore, if we are to win the war, we must continue to find the money. With the increased prices of our products, this ought not to be a difficult matter. There is a rapidly-increasing accumulation of wealth in the country, while the avenues for safe and profitable investment are becoming more and more limited, so that it will be surprising if the Finance Minister’s modest request for twelve millions is not more than covered when the day is reached on which the applications close. That is the 3rd September.

Taxation Proposals. Naturally the taxation proposals of the Finance Minister have come in for a considerable amount of criticism in the lobbies of the House, and this criticism will no doubt he given more publicity when the proposals come forward in the form of a hill. But meantime it must be admitted that Sir Joseph Ward has tackled a difficult problem with firmness. His duty to his country was not to make people speak well of him, but to make them pay up, and the loudness of their complaints may be regarde 1 to a very large extent as the measure of his success. Possibly the Finance Minister may be regarded as paying now for the good things that were said of him when the Budget first appeared. The excellence of its principal features was then the subject of general eulogy, and it is now the details that are coming in for most of the hostile criticism. Commenting on the proposals the “Post,’ by no means a blind follower of Sir Joseph Ward, says:—“We have certainly no sympathy with those who complain that the Finance Minister is exorbitant in his demands. The country is not being asked to pay a penny more than it can afford or than it ought to afford, and a surplus this year will give us a good start with the heavier burdens that the following year will inevitably bring. ‘Last year’s surplus,’ says Sir Joseph Ward, ‘was based upon safety. This year’s surplus is also based upon safety.’ This is as it should be, and it must also be admitted that the burden is in the main being placed upon the shoulders best able- to bear it. That there are details open to criticism must not be allowed to obscure the general excellence of the whole scheme. That the margin of exemption should be lowered in the case of income-tax payers who have no dependents; that the graduated rate should he increased on the incomes at the other end of the scale; that a distinction between earned and unearned incomes should be drawn, as in the United Kingdom and elsewhere; and that luxurious expenditure should be made to bear a larger share of the burden —these are all legitimate points on which Sir Joseph Ward will be wise to meet the desires of some of his critics. But the demand for a reduction of the amount to be raised from all sources should be sternly resisted by the patriotism and good sense of the country. ’ ’