NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1937, Page 8

NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

(To the Editor.)

'Sir,—A cursory, reading of the statement of national accounts so far available to the public naturally reveals much to interest even the ordinary citizen, and immediately following the publication of these figures one naturally with almost as much v interest peruses the sage remarks or criticism which hot-foot appear in the Press. I find that Customs, according .to published accounts, as compared with 1934, have yielded an increase of 21 millions, excise £300,000, income tax 3i millians, and land tax, say, half a million, these totals being set down as a "rough-and-ready reckoning" to save an expansive letter. The immediate impression I received from this-was that our Labour Government had scored a big win. When, however, I came to read tne criticism of the Government I was rather puzzled, and here is my trouble. The people of the Dominion have been able to spend, or the importers have assessed their spending power in such a way. as to require replacement Stocks resulting in. 2J millions being expended by the importers on the additional duty Oh these stocks. Is it fair to speak of Our people as an overtaxed" people when their means Will admit of such increased purchases as will return the 2} millions to the importer, plus a 50 per cent profit on trading, making, a return of 8| milU°As a further query, I wondered; the-critics Of our Labour Government realise, the extraordinary >WM»y£« trade today? From my own PJ«° naJ experience ,1 would hazard an estimate ■of a general increase, in trade.of 40 per cent, as compared with 1934. If We take income tax with its tocrtue of 3j millions, would it not be interest ing to know what percentage of the .increased income tax the amount payWe is to the increased profits and income to the payers Of this 6i_ millions of Income.tax? If we take land tax, might we not ask is the burden of taxation being so adjusted as to make those who can best affordl it pay at last their'fair "wliack", to the cost of running the Dominion? Landholders, generally speaking, have, had a very good innings; some adjustments are now being made to the mess the predecessors of our Labour Government left it to clean up. . There are quite a few things following the point of view I have expressed which one,is tempted to speak of, but I am reminded that your space available to correspondents is limited, in conclusion, however, 1 would. hazard the suggestion that criticism of the adjustments in taxation now being tackled by the Labour Government, should be equitable and on honest premises, and Hot On a fallacious application.—l am, etc., ; ■' OLD IDENTITY.

As a married man "On Sustenance' protests that he and others similarly placed have not shared in the prosperity which ' the Government claims if hat brought. The correspondent states that £l 15s sustenance pay leaves him with only 9s 6d a week to maintain his wife and himself after paying for rent, fuel, and light. Hehas been going to the Placement Office since January, but Was obtained no work from there.