GRAVE DISAPPOINTMENT TO ALL TAXPAYERS

Chronicle (Levin), 23 August 1947, Page 5

GRAVE DISAPPOINTMENT TO ALL TAXPAYERS

WELLINGTON, August 22. "The community has generally been awaiting some rnaterial relief from wartime taxation ever since the end ot' hostilities and it must be a grave disappointment to aJl taxpayers that the Government has not made a more serious attempt to reduee the burden which has been- carried for so. long," . Said^Mr::'^, J. Truscotty president oi the -" New- Zealand Manufacturers Federation today. ' ' While on the one hand calls for increased production ari. made alniost daily, on the other hand i the Government displays no inclinatiou to give ao incentive to the workers and to free industry from the dead hand of war taxation which has -weighed on it so heavily since early in the war. It is appreciated that the Government may feel it necessary to keep excess money out of eirculation by retaining the present taxation levels, but the important point must not be overlooked that high taxatiou is one of the principal ingredients in the high prices now ruling. A delerniined effort must be made sooner or later botli to bring down prices and increasfe productioa and no expressions of goodwill or calls for greater effort will meet with a more 'effective response from the community than the lead which could have been given in the Budget, by some conerete expression of The Government 's determination to assist in achieving this end. ' '