The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, OCTOBER 2nd, 1939. MONEY TO WAGE WAR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 69, 2 October 1939, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, OCTOBER 2nd, 1939. MONEY TO WAGE WAR

NEARLY ten million pounds must be found in New Zealand by the end of next March for the purpose of prosecuting the war in which tlhis Dominion, together wit the rest of the Empire, is at present engaged. How this is to be done was indicated in proposals submitted to the House of Representatives last Thursday evening by the Minister of Finance, the. Hon Waiter Nash. Those proposals received— and rightly received—the full support of all members. They were adopted their entirety, and those that are not operative now will be operative in the course of the next few days. Mr Nash expects to raise £9,750,000 by increases in income ta x, death duties, taxes, on beer, wines spirits and tobacco, a surcharge of one penny on every letter and an 'increase in the export tax on gold. On 110 section of the community should any of these taxes fall unduly hard. New Zealand is at .war, and' Mr Nash has said that the war that is being waged this year must be paid for this year. With that contention no reasonable person should find fault. Increase in income tax by 15 per cent —three shillings in the pound—may cause some slight hardship by obliging those in the fortunate position of being able to pay it to curtail to an extent their expenditure on some things that have, by long usage, become to be regarded as necessities but it will not affect their enjoying a very reasonable standard of living, o far as those with smaller earnings are concerned, their incomes have not been directly affected, and rumours that gained currenqy that the wages tax was to be increased to 2s, or even 2s 6d, in the pound have been dispelled. These earners, who form the great majority of the community, Will thus retain the same spending power, and should be able to continue spending as freely as before on "luxury" items, so that the Minister should have every reason to believe that the extra amount of money budgeted for from .these sources will be available. By increasing the gold export duty so that the Government will receive 75 per cent of the vaue of gold exported over the (New Zealand) price of £9 an ounoe, Mr Nash has only followed the lead of Australia. Gold is at its present high level because of the war, and it is right that the Government should take for the purpose of prosecuting that war a share of the enhanced value caused by it. The Minister of Finance is to be congratulated on having faced immediate problems in the most equitable way.