CASH WORRIES RETURNING

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 71, 24 March 1934, Page 12

CASH WORRIES RETURNING

Is it not a sign of the turn of the tide that in various places the problem of the Budget surplus has replaced that of the Budget deficit? In its main aspects, the reappearance of the Budget surplus is a good indication. It is cash instead of vacuum. It shows that the taxpayer's or ratepayer's paying power (reflecting the country's staying power) is greater than the budgeter estimates, and that, up to a point, recovery is in progress. But in many cases the taxI payer's claim for relicf —his claim that he be relieved out of the surplus of his own creating, so that more of his resources may; be . devoted: to speeding recovery—will be drowned by the claims of other needy sections. This Will be the worry presently of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and has already been the sorrow of the Commonwealth Prime Minister, who, ■after his concessions to wheat, is accused by the Country Party both of over-taxation and under-relief. As a recovery measure, one of - the best kinds of relief is relief of taxpayers out of surpluses. Where the surplus is sufficient to reduce taxation, the taxpayer's demand is second to none; but if may not be the first to be heard. That fight, as in days of old, will have to be fought again, as the holes in Budgets become filled up. A special compartment of, taxation is unemployment relief. The time is coniing when money left in private pockets will do more employing than if the money is collected by the State and disbursed by public agencies in relieving the unemployed." ■ ' '