POST-WAR POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 55, 2 September 1944, Page 8

POST-WAR POLICY

TAXES AND CONTROL

FULL REHABILITATION

It was just futile and fooling with the people to promise them relief of taxation when relief could not be (given without creating a greater load of debt, said the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon in the debate on the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill. New Zealand would not be out of the war P 1*I.*..3" tn« returned men were rehabilitated, and it would be a criminal betrayal of those men if the Government told people everything was all right and indulged in unchecked generosity and prodigality. New Zealand had to -pay its way, said Mr. Fraser, and there was no intention to depart from the endeavour to keep loans balanced with taxation. Provision had to be made for rehabilitation, and it rould be the height of madness to think that it co ™d b,?r done without expenditure. . Mr. W. A. Bodkin (National, Central Otago): Private enterprise will do a lot m rehabilitation if given the encouragement. Mr. Fraser said there was no more fictitious argument that had entered into debates in the House than that of putting up State enterprise against private enterprise. In the modern btate there could not be complete private enterprise, neither could there be complete State enterprise. He could not understand the chame-leon-like change of minds in the Opposition. There had been a chorus this session against import control. If control were removed some of our industries would disappear promptly. As an exporter of primary production New Zealand could not allow its industries to be swamped, and once they were agreed on that there had to be tariffs, some sort of control, or international agreement. He was not at all hopeless of international understanding, because he had found that there was an understanding of the Dominion's position in the -United States and Britain. * It was also understood that there was no future for the young people of New Zealand if the Dominion was simply to be an exporting country and not a manufacturing country as well. The abolition of import control would be a tremendous disaster, and could not be compensated for by any reduction in taxation. - • The policy of the Government was to maintain import control, to negotiate internationally, and to have a realisation of our particular economies and the opportunities the people must have for various types of industries. That was the right policy. Mr K. J. Holyoake (National, Pahiatua): Is that a permanent policy? Mr. Fraser: I don't know how permanent policies can be. An international policy would be the most permanent, and the licensing of imports must be part of it. Industries would be established said Mr. Fraser, and the questions of advancing money, if necessary, or subsidising some of them would have to be considered. Proposals would come down, and plans were well in train now. The Government's plans for reconstruction were further ahead than those of most Governments he knew. I It would be simply national madness! to dissipate our finances-until we know what our liabilities are to be," he added. Mr. G. H. Mackley (National, Masterton), who spoke after the Prime Minister, said that the Opposition had made no promise ,pf the immediate relaxation of import control. When the Opposition assumed power in 1946 many of the unfortunate legacies of the Labour Government would have to be taken care of, for at least a time. Unlike the Labour Government when it came into power in 1935, it would not attempt to swallow the whole of its problems in one gulp.