CHILD ENDOWMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5322, 5 September 1928, Page 4

CHILD ENDOWMENT.

COST IN NEW SOUTH WALESi A GROWING BURDEN. It is stated that child endowment tills year will cost New South Wales nearly a million sterling more than it ili.'t for .the period ended J one 30. Approximately 40,000 ciiildre.ii wehe registered under tlie schema la.<t year. Many people who were entitled to tlie payments refrained from applying during tlie first few months the, scheme was in operation, but new applications' are being received now at the ratq of about 100 a day. It is on these' figures that tlite, greatly increased cost is being worked out. The 'number of fresh applications; is surprising the officials, and before very long may embarrass; the Government. When the. Labour Government appealed to the electors last year it believed that endowment would he its trump card in he. metropolis. Actually, it did q)/ot greatly assist .the Labqur Party in .the industrial areas, as the payments were so small .and unions considered that the basic wage suffered as a result o.f the scheme. Experience has sjiown the department that the sources from which most applications; come arfo in the following order, numerically : 1, country towns ; 2, the metropolitan areas ; 3, coalminiing districts. The families of many small farmers and hundreds of rural workers are' now receiving the payments. Originally, Mr Lang imposed a three per cent, tax upqn wages; to meet endowment costs. The immediate effect was tha.t thousands of workers lost their joba The' tax on wages was a tax against expansion;. Even now the harmful effect of the tax is being felt, and the workers who were to benefit have suffered. Mr Bavin’s lactiqn'in suspending the wages tax relieved the position, but his Government is nojw faced with the position of raising up to £1,750,000 to meet the endowment cost for 1928-29. Thei*. are two methods under, consideration. One of them if; to adopt a watered Lang scheme and impose a 1% per cent, tax on wages. The alternative seems to; b© a super-tax on incomes, jvhich is| bound to be less popular, considering that the- demand is for reduced income taxes,. as an, aid. to|. industry. However, all sides 'of the politics seem to be determined that endowment shall continue', so. some way out of the difficulty must be found.