The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1915. WAR TAXATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 226, 10 June 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1915. WAR TAXATION.

(With which is imcorporatad The Taihape Poet 'xaa Walmarino News.)

Tlveer are very few people in New Zealand who will not admit to having •Home feeling of surprise on reading the Prime Minister's statement regarding the atecessity for a war tax. Debt is a tangible sometliirig that will only be get aud of in one way. There is no legemdermain about dpbt; it lias to be paid, and it is jih* as well that we shou'll not hug .the idea that Mr. Massey, Sir Joseph Ward, or anybody else, "is gohig to avoid 'meeting the nightj mare t r iiat is- growingly impressing itself upon -us by its rapilly increasing magnitude. This lis no time for trifling; TSTgav, • Zealan&rs, it may be said in their praise, -are not givtsi to nervousness aboiit their troubles, and they would very -biucSe rather hatxe a commonplace, comraonseaase statement about how the ■repayment of war •expenditure is to be met, than :an off-"hand\ed superindueement of thff idea that tlfcere was some mysterious, up-the-sleeve method by which our responsibility should be made to vanish. "The pretension that he could not understand where the talk of war tax and tl*<e necessity si£ Meeting the Dominion's obligations eaaie from did not fit well on "Mr. Massey. iind we regret that he did not go further and I | lot the people know what was behind [hfa. wortfs, which h'j must have kitfWii couk l - only induce hopes > of false bV* ciirity, We repeat, that war .debt is a real tangible something, as we shall find : very; and the .country has sthe* i#;'pay\t or Jiave it added to the public: ' : '&ebt, ' unless; of course, "some ;spec»a imeasg,;jsu<>U 'as. war taxation, -are/ adopted" to jjjfOvJds. interest, arid. sinking fund But % M^f. Maf?seyi\seenig to ; sebut the idea, h<? certainly should re-' lieve people's minda by telling what Is

in his own. We venture to say that he has verily staggered thinking men, men who cannot believe that a debt of this kind is to be met out of ordinary taxation. At Auckland-, the Prime Minister told a deputation that "he did not know where all the talk of a war tax came from, since there was no' real' need at.the present time for anything, in the nature 'of a special war tax; any extra expenditure arising out of the war could be met out of general revenue, or at least with a slight increase on existing methods of taxation." 'This appears as though our 'huge responsibility for war expenditure is to be trifled with and evaded. Surely the Premier does not mean that it is to- be met out of ordinary revenue, and that present taxation is to be increased until it is sufficient to pay our war bills as well as provide for the development of our young. country. A matter of so much moment deserves something more than the tantalising, exasperating vagueness with which the Premier has treated it. The Minister for Defence has been a trifle more explicit; he has since said that "The people must ?e----cognise that we shall have very great difficulty indeed, on account of war indebtedness, this year. We must expect simply t-.l keep things going until Parliament assembles and makes provision to meet the exigencies of the position. It means, in simple language, a war tax. The country cannot, get on without it, and I believe that the people arc preoared to bear it... ' Here are two seemingly conflicting statements, but most people will realise that any attempt to carry out" the scheme foreshadowed by Mr. Massey would lead to injustice of t'ie uxirome charue-ter. There seems' no need to discuss the question in ia:tiur detail, as the carrying out of Mr. Massey's views is altogether too improbable.