RE-ORGANISE! RE-ORGANISE!

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2447, 29 June 1922, Page 3

RE-ORGANISE! RE-ORGANISE!

THE COUNTRY’S HEAVY BURDEN. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)

The enormous inflation of credit and currency during the war gave a false feeling of prosperity and both individuals and Government spent money freely. Economy*was never considered and no one appeared to “take thought for the morrow.” Fax-seeing men preached caution in vain and now the day of reckoning has come and shown, beyond question, that the only way to get back to normal is for everyone, including Government, to economise and reorganise their businesses to meet the after-war conditions. Those concerns which have been unable to re-organise have had to go under, those that have “put their houses in order” are struggling against grave difficulties, yvith resources strained to breaking point. Why is this? What is the greatest handicap to their recovery? The answer here and in England is excessive taxation. A FEW QUESTIONS. Let us ask one or two questions as to the shortest way to arrive at the true position:— Whatr necessitates such heavy taxation?—The expense of war, which had to be incurred, and the growth of public service expenditure, which has had nothing to do with the war, but was due to extravagance.

What are the chief results of this taxation? —The withdrawal of money from industries which would normally be devoted to industrial expansion. This is followed by unemployment. Another result is that the cost of living is kept at a high level. Why? Because, unquestionably, most taxation is passed on to the consumer or back to the producer. v

Thus the question of taxation is one which closely affects every man, "woman and child in the community. It does not, as is often assumed, only affect the trader and producer. How/ can we reduce taxation? — By reducing our expenditure, this is the only way possible. Don’t let there be any mistake on that point. Is it possible to reduce experidi-_ ture seeing that we have to pay for the war? —The Welfare League says it is possible, because the greatest increase in our expenditure is not due to the war but due to the absurd growth of Public Service disbursements, as we now intend to prove.

GROWTH OF DEPARTMENTAL EXPENDITURE.

Before criticising this, we desire to make it quite clear that the Welfare League is strictly non-party, thus the Government is merely the “ruling authority,” whether Reform

or Liberal makes no difference to

us. We place the welfare of the before everything else, and it is on that ground alone that our criticisms are based. The question of expenditure is too large to deal with in one article, we therefore confine ourselves to local administration as a whole, leaving put all pensions, interest on loans, etc., and also (please note this) leaving out all Public Works Expenditure.

We find our Public Sendee cost this country in 1914/15 £7,874,000, in 1916/19 £9,454,000, in 1920/22 £15,592,000. ''Prom this it will be seen that in round figures it is costing us twice as much to run this country now than it did in 1914/15 and over £6,000,000 more than in 1918/19. Let any of your readers ask themselves what we are getting now which we had not in 1914/15 to justify“£B,ooo,ooo extra annual expenditure. As a matter of fact we are worse off,’ for we have a reduced Railway Service at higher rates and are paying double rates for our postages and telegrams! But when one casts back for three (3) years only to 1919, it is staggering to think that we are paying £6,000,000 more. Again we ask what are we getting for it?

The various causes advanced as excuses for this increased cost are identically the same as those which every, industry in this country has had to face. Private concerns, however, have had to re-organise their businesses or go under, but the policy of our rulers seems to be not to re-organise but to give us a poorer service and raise the charges. RE-ORGANISE.

The Welfare League has repeatedly stated the opinion that to “cut” salaries is not the best way to economise, we believe it to be a makeshift, often unjust and bound to cause discontent. We have stated, and say again, that the only way to effect real economy is to overhaul cur great public departments and re-organise with the, assistance of outside expert advice, which would be given voluntarily. The Governmental'policy, as in the case of the Railways, of appointing Boards composed of men in the Service who are impregnated with the methods which are responsible for the present position is, to the average man, a futile policy. Without sound and expert re-organisation we cannot hope for reduction of expenditure which alone can justify reduced taxation; without reduction of taxation we cannot hope to see increased production, which is essential to a lower cost of living and the best remedy for unemployment. The only gleam of sunshine in the present position is that Mr Massey apparently intends to reduce expenditure and we trust that he will be firm in this, in the interests of the whole community, and that he will seek outside -expert advice to overhaul the Department.