Letters to the Editor

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 11, 6 October 1937, Page 7

Letters to the Editor

T ravelling Exfjenses Sir. — I Tead with intereSt a xetum publiehed in the papers setting out the expendituro involved. in the tnps of the diil'erent Ministerial parties to England, the Contineut and the - Lord knOWS where else, and including, of course, the expenses of Mr Savage and his largesized party to the Coronation. I myself am a eivil servant and, like most of my fellows, voted. for the Labour Government at last election. But not agaiu, thank you, We realise that our olficial represeutativeS at the Coronation should travel and do thinge on a decent scale in keeping with tne dignity of their olficial posxtion, but there ought to be a limit. And how do we xeconcile this big total with the Prime Hinister's deelaration, m reply to criticism from Mr F. W. Doiage, that he was the guest of the Britislj. Government whixe in England? The total expenses of the three parties — the Prime Minister's, Mr Nash's, and the Minister of Labour 's trip to Geneva, actually exceed £13,000. As a comparison, the vieit of the Minister Of Finance and party to the United Kingdom is set down at £5000, while the'expenses of the New Zealand contingent to the Coronation— a big body of men — was only £3500. But of course they were only common mortals. During the term of oifice Of the late Government bitter criticism was levelled at them for their expensive habit of globe-trotting. It is nice to know that our party (1 voted for them, don't forget) can go one better. — Yours, etc., . C.S. Hastings, Oct. 5, 1937. - Taxpayers' Burdens Sir, — "Cheerful Taxpayer," in a lengthy and somewhat rambling lettor published in your columns on September '£9, makes an earnest but unsuccessful attempt to explaiu away au incident which I commented upon in a letter published a few days earii,er. « The remark, "We haven't started yet," made as an interjection by a Government: member during a speech by one of the Oppositiom on the high lev^ of taxatidn in this country, can only be construed by anyone who is at olice honest and intelligent as a Callous and tactless disregard of the concern felt by .responsible people at the riding tide of taxation. It was alsO an intimatioii that the taxpayer was, to put it crudely but expressively, going to "get it in the neck." And he is. As you remark in your leading columns, 'the Labour Government has imposed an additional burden on the taxpayers of £8,800.000 in two years. Your correspondent, who will have need of his cheerfulness by the time he begins to appreciate the consequences of tho Labour Government's reckless prodigality, makes roference also to the saies tax and tho rate of exchango. On the very eve of last election the Prime Minister, speaking in Auckland, said that if the Labour Party were returned to power the sales-tax would come off immediately. It is still there. Some months ago the Prime Minister denounced the high rate of exchange (which is still with us) as an iniquitous thing at the very same moment almoat that the Daily Herald (the London Socialist daily), which Mr Savage must surely regard as an authority, said that New Zealand 's present prosperity was largely due to the high rate of exchange. — Yours, etc., TAXPAYER Oct. 2, 1937.