INCREASE OF PRODUCTION.

Taihape Daily Times, 22 March 1918, Page 4

INCREASE OF PRODUCTION.

The new member of the Ministry, Mr. Guthrie, has, in the early days of his Ministerial career, repeated what has so frequently been ministerially •rumpeted 'throughout the country

about more production being essential to the payment of- immensely greater taxation, now pending. The Hon. Mr. Guthrie has advanced" the subject from the undecided will-have-to-be stage talked about by other Ministers to the shall-be decided stage What we are anxious to know now is when the new era in production is to commence. Is the Government going to institute the new regime of increased production in preparation and readiness for the increased burdens the coming of which nobody has any doubts about, nr is it the intention to levy crushing taxation first and leave it to the men on whom it must fall to flounder through the best way they can? We want to know the quality of Mr Guthrie’s positive shall-be; is the responsibility of increasing production to be thrown upon the shoulders of men at present on the land, or does Mr. Guthrie mean that a new land policy shall be instituted whereby more men and still more men are to be put to producing from the land? Mr Guthrie must excuse us for being somewhat sceptical about the land policy of his party and about the great election cry by w r hich it crept into power for that cry at the present time is the subject of the strongest mordant ridicule. To talk of “settlement and still more settlement” seriously to-day is invitation of insult, or the most withering contempt. Now that Mr. Guthrie has told us there shall be increased production; that the old hap-py-go-lucky cum political jobbery methods are to be scrapped, he, or one of his confreres in the Cabinet, might ease the minds of the present prospective bearers of the coming taxation burdens by telling them when

they may expect reinforcements. There is certainly no reserve of producers in sight, nor are there any indications that arrangements are being made for the formation of such reserves. . Mr. Guthrie and his brother reformers must pardon us for thinking that the silence about when the new era is to commence means that increased production is a valuable adjunct to runnng another successful general election. Instead of “settlement and still more settlement” next time it is to be “more production and still more production.” All -such doubts can be removed by the Ministry making' it clear that something is being done to pay tlie crushing burdens that are as sure to fall upon producers as that the earth revolves around the sun. 'All the cunning and craft of financiers and money-bags cannot scheme to dodge the coming taxation. We all know the source of all our riches and that is the source from which must coipe the payment of our debts and the interest thereon until they are paid.