WAR CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 789, 9 October 1929, Page 8

WAR CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH

Sir.— Eleven years have now gone by since the Great War, and the war debt of New Zealand, as at March 31 last, is £ 70,881,269. Of this huge amount the sum of £24.809,529 is payable in England and the balance of £46,071,740 is payable to private persons, companies and societies in New Zealand. The significance of this huge debt can only be realised when the Parliamentary Budget for the last financial year reveals the astounding fact that the interest and sinking fund on the war loans exceeds the whole of the revenue derived by way of income and landtax. The present generation has. therefore. to carry this staggering financial burden which, in turn, will be passed on to the next generations.

whose lives are mortgaged before they are born. During the past war period thousands of people in this Dominion made fortunes which only could have been made through the holocaust of war. With the conscription of the manhood of a country there should automatically follow the conscription of wealth. Political economists have proved that had the necessary machinery by way of law been in operation in -New Zealand so as to be effective in time of war, there would be today no war debt in this Dominion, and the country would have been saved over £ 80.000,000 together with interest. The Dominion of New Zealand is recognised throughout the world as having in the past enacted wise and far-reaching humanitarian legislation. The Workers’ Compensation, among other Acts, was placed on the Statute Books of this Dominion, and is now in operation in Europe, the United States and other lands. If the present Government has the courage, in time of peace, to pass the necessary legislation for the conscription of wealth in time of war, and the legislation is similarly enacted brother Governments, it will have a great and far-reaching effect toward the peace of. the world. Were the United Party, or any other political power, to legislate in this direction, they certainly would have the moral support of the vast majority of the citizens of this Dominion. L. A. TOZER.