PUBLIC EXPENDITURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24420, 4 October 1940, Page 4

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —Has Mr MacManus failed to read the news during the past 12 months, or is he seeking to display his Irish humour in a sarcastic manner against the workers of the Dominion for their many signs of lack of cooperation with the Labour Government in its war effort? In your issue of Tuesday he writes: “ If the workers cheerfully submit to the 5 per cent, increase in sales tax, the 5 per cent, increase in war tax, the increased Customs duty, etc., etc., for defence purposes, it is up to the ‘richer class’” —whichever that may be —“ to submit to a super tax on incomes over £400.” Are the numerous strikes among miners, wharf labourers and freezing works employees, motions of protest by railwaymen and civil servants and nearly every group of unionists in the Dominion against the increase in taxation, and the demands for higher wages to offset the recent increases, signs of “ the workers’ cheerful submission to the increases for war purposes ”? If so, Mr Semple must have been guilty of a grave mistake when he spoke of people “ whimpering ” and “ squealing” at having to pay an extra shilling in the pound to help the Empire in its time of need. Your correspondent should write to the Minister and tell him that all the demands which have been made for higher wages were simply the “ workers’ ” way of expressing their “ cheerful submission ” to the call which has been made to them to help the Empire win the war, and that they are not ‘‘whimperers’’ or “squealers.” Will he believe it? Finally, will that great army of men and women who have been appointed by the Government to jobs at from £SOO to £1250 a year thank their Irish “ comrade ” for seeking to take some of their easily-earned money from them? — I am, etc. I Wonder.