A WARNING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2435, 14 April 1915, Page 6

A WARNING

PREPARE FOR A RAINY DAY PRIME MINISTER'S SUGGESTION A : mild warning to the people of New Zealand that serious calls are not unlikely to be made on their resources in the not very remote future was given by the Prime Minister in conversation with a reporter yesterday. "We have had many suggestions regarding a war tax," he said, "all of them interesting, some of them instructive. I cannot help thinking, however, that there are a good many people asking for a war tax now who will be sorry when it arrives. But come it must when Parliament meets. New Zealanders have been wonderfully generous during the war period. The Patriotic Fund, the Belgian Fund, and all the other funds have quite properly been contributed to very liberally, but I must say that I should like to see more being done to meet the cases of distress that are certain to arise later. The Government will do its duty to the relatives and dependents of soldiers who may be killed or disabled, but in addition to what the Government may be able to do supplementary provision may be welcome and even necessary in many cases. I am confident that the probability, of such cases occurring has only to be mentioned to remind our patriotic and generously inclined citizens that the time is opportune to do something more in .this respect than has been done up till the present,". Do' you think our present prosperity will continue? Mr. Massey was asked. "Principally on account of the war," he said, "the prices of our staple products are at present particularly good, and in consequence the country is exceedingly prosperous. But we cannot expect such prices to continue, and now is the time to prepare as far as we possibly can for wliat is very often referred to as a rainy day."