The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, DEC. 17th, 1921. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 December 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, DEC. 17th, 1921. THE WEEK.

There is the suggestion of depleting Deter to pay Paul in Mr -Massey’s latest tinkering with taxation. For some time he has been promising more taxation for amusements and the proposals are now brought forward. But while there is to be increased taxation on the one hand, there is to be relief on the other hand An another direetion. Five per cent concession is to be made on income tax and the relief is to amount to £300,000 equal to taxable income producing six millions, To grant this rebate to the wealthy, £200,000 is to he recovered from increased amusement tax, and a similar .- on from the race going public by an increased tax on dividends and a big jump in the stakes tax. Air Masse-. does not impress one with tho urgency for the money by this juggling with the collection. Tile amusement

1.1-, is going to lie much heavier and is going to affect the poor man’s plea Mire ill order to give relief to the rich man. The high tax on the horse; owners who win stakes is also an un|:,ir levy ami is to he deprecated. The inequities of the position suggest. Mr I Massey has not given the position due i consideration —to put it mildly. Thk burden of the interim address delivered by Mr Beauchamp »t ">'• meeting ot the Bank of New Zealand shareholders yesterday was a plea for greater production. "Value lor money” is what is required to lift the burden of straightened finance now upon the country. On all sides advice of this kind is given, hut neither Govern- ; ment, nor employers are prepared to so order their methods that they will practice what they preach. In every industrial walk the situation Ls governed by ihe employees. They are orgnnised and are resolute in their demands , and the authorities invariably submit ; to the dictation of the unions. How long this is to go on remains to be ; seen. The employers are not hold enough to stein the situation, and so ! force of circumstances will have to i settle the position—hut it will take , time, and in the interval much Buffer- j ing and dislocation will result. Of | course the attitude of organised labor \ in this country is no different to that j of other countries. Everywhere the : unions are fighting hard to retain their j awards and logs won under war-time j eruditions. I But times have changed greatly since , then and all places aro feeling the re- I action. In an American financial journal just to hand the general attitude j of the labor organisations is discussed , and tlie position is regarded much in j the same' light as it appears to us. : Says the writer: It would save a ] great amount of agony if these simple I economic propositions could be under- j stood. It does not pay to disregard facts. , They aro neither friendly nor unfriend j to labor; they are the same to every- I body, unemotional and unyielding. 1 They may he denounced and heads ! may be bruised against thorn, but j they will not he disturbed. Tho wise j man takes account of them and adapts | his policies to them. L T nfortun|ately j the labor organisations have Keen unable or unwilling to see that the mar ket for their services no longer exists at the old rates of pay, and that it was not only just to the great agrictil- J tuml population that wages in the i other industries should be reduced, hut , for tho best interests of the wage- , earning population itself. They do not see that the economic law already has I forced a great reduction of actual wage | payments which is what really counts. I It means nothing to wage-earners to have the rates high if there is no work ■ to lie had or work only part time. j

High wages force unemployment, and another contributing factor in 'this country is the shortening of capital. There is less money to go round, from the Government clown and as a consequence there will be lews work. Industrial costs have to cioine down, and naturally wages is a special factor in the cost of production in ' every stago and phase of industrialism. By lessening costs money would go further and thereby create more employment. This would react specially to the benefit of the wage earners, for the cost of living would be reduced all round, and the value for the pound would swing back to the pre-war standard. The. world lives by the value it gets for its money. The less value the more stringent are the times, but produce more for the money, follow Air Beauchamp’s advice, and values will he in better favor. There is nothing new ill all this—it has been said over and over again when ever the economic; situation lias been discussed; hut the folk are slow to understand, and from time to time endeavour to right the position by what may be called brute force —for so an organised strike may be termed.

TJiie inevitable end of all strikes is never foreseen he the strikers what nationality you will. Britain’s huge; coal strike lias been quoted as a typical case. It cost the minors over £75,000,000 and the other wage earners of tile country a very large sum through enforced unemployment. The British government contributed £12,000,000 from the public treasury in the final settlement to help in tho temporary adjustment of wages, and lost more than that in declining revenues due to the falling off of business on account of the' strike. All of that was clear waste, doing nobody any good. Each party suffered by reason of the losses of tlie other party. The employing class suffered because, the loss of wages impaired the purchasing power of the wage-earning class, and this affected the output of all kinds of industries and reduced the consumption of coal even after the mines had resumed. On the other hand, the wageearning class suffered through the losses of the employing class as the latter had less capitnl to employ in industry and the demand for labour was lessened in consequence. AH of t'heso results might have been foreseen, if i any account had been taken of eco- j nomic conditions. But wo must not I infer labor alone is guilty of this sort of cra.ss stupidity, It has taken tlie

nations a long time to learn that differences need not he settled only by a resort to arms, or that Ireland’s affairs can a bettor understanding, ami we hope organised labor will also review the new situation and profit by the new order now coining in. The British Parliament and Irish representatives are considering the terms for tlie settlement of Ireland’s affairs In the Commons the Prime Alinistcr made a clear address which seems to cover the ground fairly and puts the whole matter in proper perspective. From the nature of the general comment it appears likely that the Commons will ratify the agreement. In tlie Lords, the discussion was notable fur the outbreak by Lord Carson who is the nominal leader of the “DieHards” and an irreconcilable of the most extreme character. The violence of his opposition shows how futile it' would be to look for any other solution of the difference except by the awful arbitrament of the sword. Such ail offending alternative to the simple process now possible is worth the sacrifice ol a great deal of personal vanity. For after all, if victory came Ivy tlie sword it could lie won only by a harvest of death and surely in these so-(■■•ailed enlightened days more humanity is expected of our race. l’uiiiiAi's the most interesting of the discussions is to come from Ireland’! side. Unfortunately it is behind closed dmirs. But from the preliminary disillusion, it is clear there is a sharf ••'vision ol opinion. It seems to lx .>>,cca-tod that the final result will hr ihe acceptance of the terms rlrawr npoii which those signing the agreement are fully resolved. The differences ol opinion on both sides of the Trish sen are interesting as accentuating the different points of view. But looking to the bright- side it seems safe now tc expect that the agreement will he the : ultimate basis for the treaty or pae to he finally drawn up and enforced and that world document will he a monument to sound statesmanship ant 1 wise discretion in regard to an age long ’ dispute the attempted settlement ol j which has wrecked the careers of si many great men, keen and earnest D achieve a peaceful and therefore a last- . ing settlement.