A FURTHER LEVY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 252, 16 June 1932, Page 4

A FURTHER LEVY

For some time past it has been apparent that the Government has been carefully paving the way to an announcement of further unemployment taxation and this is now brought a step nearer by the indications from Wellington that an early session of Parliament may be called again to replenish the Unemployment Board's coffers. But the position is fast passing from the stage of resignation to one of irritation, and if the indications which are plainly pointing the present direction of the wind are correct, the general taxpayers of this country will demand some more satisfactory accounting than has been given so far, for the tremendous expenditure upon unemployment. In this country of a million and three-quarters of population, we are faced with an unemployed army of over 52,000 and a taxation burden upon those remaining in employment, of approximately £3,500,000 per annum. And yet in spite of this tremendous taxation, and the strenuous protestations of the politicians concerning their endeavours to meet the situation, this Dominion finds itself with the second highest unemployment increase in( the world and faced with the definite prospect of further unemployment taxation before the year is out. No oihcial denial has been given to the recent statement by the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr. D. Sullivan, M.P.) predicting a shortage of £900,000 in the unemployment funds if the present rate of expenditure is maintained until the end of the year, and without some definite offtcial indication to the contrary, it may be taken that Mr. Sullivan's information is substantially correct. We are faced, then, with the position that the Minister of Unemployment-cum-Employ-ment, his Unemployment Board, the wages tax, the levy, and all the other legislatpve contributions levied upon the purses of the general taxpayer, have entirely failed ei'ther to begin to check unemployment or to make ends meet. It is suggested, of course, that Mr. Coates's smal farm scheme and the revival of seasonal occupations will decrease the figures in the spring, but while that is a consummation devoutly to be wished, the present trend of events leaves very little ground for optimism. At the present rate of progress, the small farm scheme may begin effectively to absorb a proportion of the unemployed some time next year, but in the meantime, what have we? In any case, practical farmers, either publicly or in private, waste very few words in discussing the merits of the small farm scheme, and it may justly be stated that it is regarded at its best as merely an indifferent palliative. As a tangle of generalities, it has been handed over, or rather thrown off, by Mr. Coates, anc left to the Agricultural Department to do the rest. As instancec. by the recent discussion at a meeting of the Rotorua County Council, when the counci! -vas asked to assist in f orwarding the scheme in the county area, local bodies are faced with incomplete regulations, generalities insteac.of details, and a tangle of loose ends, which it is apparentiy the Government's intention shoulc be gathered together and woven into a woof by any outside agency which is sufficiently enthusiastic to undertake the job. Within the past week, thera have been two official statements ;from Wellington emphasising the impoverished cOndition of the Unemployment Board anc. the urgent necessity for further funds. Now comes a semiofficial r uiribur supported by very definite corroborative evider.ce, that the Government proposes shortly once again to explore the bottomless sack which it apparentiy regards as the taxpayer's

pocket. In the face of these facts, it will require something more than the half hearted hope of the Prime Minister "that the funds would be sufficient," to reassure the country. The present indications iinquestionably are that within the next two months the people will once again be called upon to bolster up the unemployment administration with further contributions.