MR LANG & LABOUR

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1931, Page 6

MR LANG & LABOUR

I Criticism of Mr Lang and his methods has been severe, but Irom no quarj ters has it been more caustic than the New South Wales Labour press. In the last issue of the “Australian Worker” the editor has the following paragraph in a leading article : —- “The formulation, by a Labour Government, of such a measure as Lang’s Emergency Taxation Mill would once have been unthinkable. “Anything more vicious m principle, or more stupid in method, it would be impossible to imagine. It was so utterly wrong-headed, it so liagrantly \iolateu both equity and expediency, that it challenged the ill-will of every section of the community. It is doubtful whether it had a single genuine -supporter, even in Mr Lang’s obsequious caucus. “No Government has ever dared to tax the working class as the Lang Government has done. From time to time reactionary administrations have dipped their fingers into the lean purses of the poor, but never was it done with the callous thoroughness that characterises the similar efforts ot the Ministry at present in control of New South Wales. “The proposed taxation did not reveal a redeeming feature to the most friendly examination. Jt was economically unsound,' it was socially unjust, if was politically foolish. It was gradt uated in a fashiqn almost incredibly crude and inequitable. “Had it become law, its effects must have been appalling. It would have compelled the vast majority of the people to curtail their expenditure so drastically that trade would have suffered acutely, and the numbers of the unemployed have been tragically increased. “What is Mr Lang alter? Is he sincere in his legislative perversities? Has the dictatorship conferred upon him vitiated his common sense and afflicted him with a devastating megalomania ? “We may differ in replying to these questions, hut most of us at any rate will agree* in giving thanks for the defeat of one of the most pernicious mid preposterous schemes o. taxation ever put forward by an Australian Government.”