TAXATION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 22, 9 November 1945, Page 4

TAXATION

Sir _Than'ks for space allowed me. Mr Gillespie can have twentyyears to figure out the interest charges of either State Advance or private mortgages before he owns, tha door knob. While this 40 hour per week business is law, I am too busy working approximately 80 hours per week trying to catch up on that housing problem, his party has failed to solve to bother about working out something my opponent is not getting lor nothing. Despite the" fact that I am busy, I welcome your letters Mr Gillespie, as the nine pins, you erect are so easily knocked down. You say people can't save under a Tory Government, yet you state there was £49,423,714 in tlic Savings Banks when the Labour Government was on the "hustings" promising the world if they got ii\ abolishing sales taxes, wages etc. I notice you mention they increased the sales tax 10 per cent, as a war measure and you soldiers and workers pay after fighting overseas . '

Yet Mr Nash only taxes, the land owners of the soil you went to defend £4.8,000 and the soldiers workers ' » » and produces 20% million and producers 20% million clo not call for any special comment. Of course any comment about plucking 20% million out of what is produced would be enough to wake up the. inhabitants of Whale Island. Very kind of these profes-,. sors of economics to take the tax off children's clothing and staple goods and flop it on to father in another obscure direction. No wonder there is a .shortage of timber and other necessities with 20% million pounds taxation dumped on to production. The more production to more taxation. The natural incentive of your Party's policy j is to "kill the goose that lays the golden egg" thereby creating ' ; go-slow' methods, and less production. I am no genius, but any fool should know that if Mr Nash dropped hlis 20% million bundle of taxation on the source of all wealth viz. the land of New Zealand by way of rating on the. unimproved values he would force the land of New Zealand 5 into a held of production and give to all producers the freedom of action they are justly entitled to. While only land tax is applied to land ) th'e. land, the source of all wealthy can lie idle in vast while the community increase its value; and the land owners pocket the increased value whereas if taxation was applied to land instead of prtxductijbn, land would become a burden to those who hold it out of use. A five per cent, rent charge on the capital value of the land of New Zealand would bring in all the taxation required/ and take the load off industry which is at present simply passed on to the consumers. I believe this was a plafik in the Labour Party's programme in the days of Mr .Holland but was subsequently jettisoned at, a Labour Conference before Labour attained power with the result that they have pursued a policy of a dog catching its which viill eventually get them nowhere except economic chaos. I am \rather surprised at any Communist Party supporting the Labour Government as 1 would have thought they would have preferred a wolf in wolf's to a wolf in sheep's clothing. Yours etc. STAN EVANS.