TWO-AND-THREE BUTTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2190, 16 October 1920, Page 2

TWO-AND-THREE BUTTER.

COMMENTING on the Butter Committee's recommendations the Post says: —“In the interests of industrial peace, we hope that the result; will be acceptable to the public, but we cannot enthuse over it or over the methods that led up to it. I he Committee's report leaves the matter on the same economic basis as before —(he subsidy basis; and lias merely suggested a price that should* result in the present butter subsidy (over £300,000 a year) being nearly or quite doubled. But .the Committee has left it open for the Government to raise the money, or part of it, in other ways than by merely lifting it out of the Consolidated Fund, which is built up out of general revenue and taxation, including customs duties that fall heavily on the masses. Perhaps the subsidy could he raised out of luxury taxation, or out of taxes not so easily passed on from the strong to the weak as customs duties are parsed on. To meet the subsidy there arepossible sources of supply in deatli duties, imposts on land transactions (cannot land traffickers pay higher transfer duties?), totalizator taxation, and the new higher grades of laud tax. If the subsidy can be raised from wealth or from luxuries (e.g., the remarkable luxury taxes of America) these sources should certainly he tapped before the Con-

solidated Fund. In this connection Mi I 'Massey's anticipation that he will he able to raise the whole subsidy out of taxation - that cannot bo passed on, and that will not be felt by the great body of the public, is hopeful.”