THE OTHER SIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 94, 21 August 1942, Page 5

THE OTHER SIDE

HOSPITAL RATING QUESTION

AS THE WOMKKR SEES IT !

Those who have been interesting themselves in the question of the growing burden of the Hospital Kate in County and Borough will probably be intrigued with the following paragraph which apparently reflects the workers point of view.

A resolution opposing the abolition of the hospital rate, as desired ■ fry the New Zealand Sheepowners' •Federation, the New Zealand Municipal Association, the New Zealand ' Counties' Association, and other local bodies and organisations, which Wish to make the hospitals a charge 011 general taxation, or by increasrfing the wages, tax, Avas carried at the recent conference of the New ■ Zealand Workers' Union. The resolution urges that as the community "■/for unimproved) value of land be- ! longs to the whole of the people, ' ithe cost of hospitals is a proper charge upon it; that the Consolidated Fund is largely derived from ''taxes on labour, and so the demand that hospital costs should be a •charge upon it or on the Social Security Funds means the relief of .property at the expense of the -masses; that the importance of local bodies is due only to their power of taxing their constituents; the abolition of hospital boards, the centralisation of control, and the impairment of local government. That the wages tax should be abolished, and the deficit repaired by an increase in the land tax, as men who liave no property should be exempt from taxation.