WHERE THE TROUBLE LIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2453, 13 July 1922, Page 1

WHERE THE TROUBLE LIES.

The recent debates in the House on the “Second Cut” in the Public Service bonus and the amendment to the Address-in-Reply moved by the Leader of the Opposition show on both sides of the House o diffidence about diagnosing the disease from which the country is suffering at present, and certainly a far greater disinclination to suggest a remedy. The only practical suggestion as to where a saving could be effected was that given by Mr Veitch in connection with the cost of imported locomotives : —we are assuming that Air Veiteh’s figures are correct —even this saving would only go a very little way towards the desired end; the only other suggestion made in Parliament w T as the suicidal proposal by the Labour Party to increase taxation. REDUCED EXPENDITURE ESSENTLIL. It is difficult to believe that there is any hesitation between reducing expenditure and increasing taxation. The people are taxed already to the limit of their paying capacity. Business is dull not bemuse the people are unable to buy goods at their cost of production, plus a reasonable profit, but because they have not the money for goods increased in price by abnonnallv heavy taxation.

Never before have the people of this Dominion been taxed as heavily as now. We are taxed on everything, from the cradle to the coffin, and every tax does something to increase the cost of production. The amount of money diverted into the national treasury for questionable expenditure constitutes a serious drain upon the national capital that should he available for business expansion. We are complaining of hard times, but we do not seem to realise that the hard times are due mainly to high taxation. Reduce the burdens on the shoulders of commerce and commerce will increase so rapidly that even with a lesser rate the total of government revenue will be greater. It is a business proposition to reduce govenmental expenditure in times of depression. To maintain those expenditures and increase the taxes to make good the losses on- declining revenue is to intensify an evil by intensifying its cause. WANTED EXPERT ENQUIRY. Another point struck us in these debates and that is the apparent impossibility of getting at the whole facts of the case. There is in the Opposition Leader’s speech an apparent groping after essential information and the same want of knowledge is evident in all- the speeches. The Welfare League has repeatedly stated that critics find it very difficult to diagnose the trouble because it is impossible for outsiders to penetrate the official ring-fence and get at the facts. Both in the House and outside it there is apparently the same helpless feeling that things do not .seem to he right, that there is something radically wrong with the whole system of Public Service management —and we are confident that we voice the genera] feeling of the community when we say that a proper investigation and overhaul of our whole Public Service by outside experts is the only thing which will satisfy the public that the huge sums extracted by taxation are being expended to the best advantage. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)