The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1915. WAR TAXATION

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 270, 18 August 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1915. WAR TAXATION

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post 'isi "Waimariiiu News.)

A special war tax must be levied to J meet tii eincreasing'iy large expendi-! ture for war purposes. On this state-) ment everyone i s now agreed. In the form such a tax will be levied lies a question of vital interest to everyone in this district, becaus e a definite set had been mad e to heavily tax that from which the lif e blood of our ' country comes. A powerful section of city dweller s have left no stone unturned to sway the Government towards a tax on exports; we in the Taihape district need only to think for a moment upon what New Zealand exports consist of and \re shall find that everything we produce here would b e subject, to this proposed tax. Let it be said that no one outside a money changer's office would'be stupid enough to urge or support such a proposal, because it would, obviously, raise the price of living to such an extent that it is difficult to say what wages a man would need to get to enable him and his family to live. The producer would pay the tax on his exports, his meat, woojl and wheat; he would also pay the increased wages that must follow on the higher prices of foodstuffs. If any producer will work the problem out to something near what an expert tax would mean to him he will find rather disquieting results. That Mr Massey, I with his Minister for Finance, was in som e way wedded to this proposal, there can b e no doubt. Just prior to the general,elections, Mr Massey said that a war tax could be avoided. Perihaps this little fiction was merely a momentary political expedient. Yet, we believe, Mr Massey seriously held the view expressed, because only a short time before Parliament met, he suggested, that & financial equilibrium

ence did not leave in any doubt their

views on the export tax, for they, with practical unanimity, passed a resolution objecting to it. Naturally so, because their land tax would stiil remain if it were not increased, they would pay the whole of the export tax, and many might be still liable to the Income Tax collector, and they ail realised how it would operate in raising costs cf living with aJI the concomitant labour troubles about increased wages. The weight of public opinion and the lcgic of facts are distinctly opposed to taxing exports, and the Farmers' Union resolution, urging that war taxation shall "be made to press equitably en a'l members of the community" has the voice of the whole community, very marly, behind it. In all probability Go\£-enment leanings will be large'y modified now that a National Cabinet has been established, with the reins of finance in stronger hands. The working people have suffered mest through the war already by

the increased cost of living, to follow a course that would immensely accentuate tlQig would 'lnvite (disaster in many ways. The higher costs of living really represent a considerable reduction of pay. Wages will not purchase anything like what they would prior to the war, and to still further largely reduce their power must result in serious, if not turbulent, opposition. The taxation of exports would not only

1 press heavy on producers in our own district, but it would also endanger their enterprises in several ways. Any. thing tlhat places an embargo on the local freezing works operations will be attended with serious consequences to th e whole project. To place a special tax en everything: meat, wool, skins, and by-prcductg would very detrimentally affect the prospects and endanger the success of the whole enterprise. It is well-known that all embargoes on trade tend to lessen the volume. If not, why do we levy import duties on foreign manufactures? Is it not to discourage importations and keep our workrooms full by enabling employers to pay living wages to our own people? That is just how an export duty

would operate on sucih enterprises as th e Taihape freezing work Notwithstanding, there are some amongst us yet, even here in Taihape, who favour th e imposition of a tax on exports. It 13 net denied that all primary producers have benefited much by the war, and that some have made (huge fortunes out of enhanced prices received for their products, but it will be readily seen, as was pointed out at the Farmers' Conference, that an export tax would rather aggravate than remedy the situation. The farmers want -a tax that will press equitably on the community, not one that will tax all alike, not tax the workers, who have already suffered largely, with those who have made for-

tunes. An equitable f war tax will, obviousfy, take from those who have profited most, traders as well as producers, and not from those who have already lost heavily by the war. It would b e dangerous in the extreme to impose a tax that would undoubtedly interfere with our commerce.