PROBABLE INCREASE IN TAXATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 11

PROBABLE INCREASE IN TAXATION.

INTERVIEW WITH THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION. A REPLY TO DR FINDLAY. (Fbom Oub Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 1. Mr Massey (Leader of the Opposition), who has been here on business connected with his party, intervlewecT by your correpondent just before he left for Auckland on Saturday, said : " I have not had time to fully analyse the speech of Dr Findlay at Timaru, as I am leaving by train this morning, but the impression I have received is that it is an attempt to prepare the way for an increase of taxation next session. The journalistic mouthpiece of the Government says that ' however much people may object to paying taxation, they are face to face with the fact that they have to do it, and as time goes on increasing expenditure has to be faced.' Then Dr Findlay says ' it may be asked why the expenditure of the Government has increased so as to require an increased ie\enue from taxation. Dr Findlay says increased revenue is required, and then goes on to tell the people that it is required because during the last 10 years an increased amount has been transferred from revenue to the Public Works Fund. What nonsense ! 1 venture to say there will \ be no transfer from revenues to public | works during the current year, and yet it is now, when no transfer is taking place, that an increase of taxation is proposed. If an increase of taxation is necessary, I have no hesitation in saying that it ie owing to the wanton waste and extravagance on the part of the Government that has been going on for years past. I venture to say that instances of waste are' ' known to every individual in the community who takes any interest in -what iis going on' around him.' Dr • Findlay 1 endeavours to show ' that the taxatioh I upon the great mass of our people has ! been reduced 20 to 25 per cent., and says it is absurd to imply that taxation has increased generally the burdens of the people during the yeans the pieseni

Government has been in office. How incerrect this statement is its easily showr* by a reference to the Year Book prepored. as the title page says, under instruction from the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward. It contains a table showing the total taxation collected per head ot the populat ; on from 1891 to 1908—1891, £3 9s 2d : 1908, £5 0s 4d. These are official figures prepared by the Government's own officers and cannot be twisted to support the inferences which the Minister of Internal Affairs wishes the people to draw. If Dr Findlay paid a little more attention to the principles laid down by Adam Smith, whom he rather slightingly refers to. he would know that one section of the community cannot be called upon to pay more than its share of taxation without the whole of the community being affected, and if land owners, farmers, and settlers are required to contribute more than their proper proportion to the cost of Government (and that is the case already) it follows that the wages fund is affected, and they have

less to spend in improvements and in the development of their properties. If too much money is withdrawn from ordinary circulatior by the Ux collector the whole country must suffer. Dr Findlay (and I suppose his colleagues) appear to be of ooinion that they can restore prosperity by increasing taxes, and that is just" where they are making a serious mistake. Another turn of the screw will mean more unemployed, more people leaving the country, and therefore heavier burdens for the permanent settlers, whether they live in town or country. Among the reasons given by Dr Findlay for the necessity of increasing taxation, he says that the North Trunk line is not yet paying. I think this is a somewhat unfortunate reference,, as anyone who travels by "the Main Trunk must see that the business being done up to the present has been somewhat phenomenal, and a long way above the average of other lines. The learned doctor says that it is due to the strenuous policy of development of the country by the present

Government that the need of growinj, expenditure ha-s arisen.' Bat the reverseis actually the case. If the Government, instead of keeping huge areas of Crown and Native lands locked up, had gone in for a proper policy of development and settlement, more people would have been employed, our exports would have increased, and New Zealand would at least have been as prosperous as Australia. But the Government has not encouraged enterprise and energy on the part of our people. On the .contrary, the most enterprising of our .settlers (and 1 use the term generally) have been made the victims of pinpricks and petty annoy*ances and increasing taxes until they begin to feel that industrious and enterprising people are not wanted here. Hence our "present difficulty, and the •sooner the Government of the country realises that fact, and admits the mistakes that have been made with a view to avoiding them in the future, the better it will be for all concerned and the sooner will prosperity be restored."