CONSCRIPTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1916, Page 7

CONSCRIPTION.

To the Editor.

Sir,—l see by the Governor's address in opening Parliament that a Conscription Bill is going to be put through til. session. I wonder whom it is going to affect, for as far as the working man is concerned, he is under compulsion for a considerable time. All avenues of employment are closed against him now, botli by the Government and private employers. Even his application won't be accepted at land ballots, so that the only tiling that is open for him is Hell, or the war. Is this conscription meant for the rich man? 1 don't think so. The pious rich must be left up his boodle out of the blood and sweat of the less fortunate, and to enjoy the luxuries of the land in the highest degree. The poor man must protect life, property, and pleasure, whilst lie goes on complacently making huge war profits for which he pays little or nothing. But what else is the working man meant for but to be the rich man's slave V But the authorities are going to bring great hardship on him now. They are taking away from him the wages it look him years to secure, and putting in his place a girl at one-half the wages. Won't it be a terrible shock to the nerves of the rich to find that his wages bill is but onehalf it was before the war, and the prospect of cheap labor for ever more? Some people will argue that the rich man will have to pay a lot in taxes. Will he, though? 'I think not. The rich man lias a very convenient method of passing it on to the poor man. If he is a money lender he will charge more interest. If he is a landlord he will charge more rent. If he is a merchant for every shilling he is paying in taxation, he will charge two shillings on his wares. Instead of paying taxes, the increase enables him to make a huge profit. Certainly the last tiling in the world that Mr. Massey and party would think of interfering with is this method of business. The only method that 1 can see of dealing with those giants is to compel them to pay the entire cost of men at the front in proportion to their incomes. Say, for instance, a man having £SOO clear income a year he should be compelled to pay the cost of one man at the front; a man with £IOOO a year two men, and so on in proportion to incomes Any other method is sheer humbug, as the rich are in a position to pass it on to Bomebody else under the present system of taxation. Not alone that the rich are not doing anything to assist the State to case their burden; they are not contributing anything toward their own protection. Therefore, it is no wonder that we have the extreme rich and the extreme poor, while this state of affairs continues. Hoping that aome. 'abler pen than mine will take this up.— 1 am, etc., JOHK DIG GINS, Lepperton, May 13. [To say.that the worker in Jvew Zealand is the slave of the employer is to display an inexcusable ignorance of existing conditions. . Very often it is the other way about. As for the rich being left to amass more wealth, Mr. Massey has stated, that the Compulsion Bill to be introduced will embrace all able-bodied men, high or low, rich or poor. It is a noteworthy fact that the better off class—the "rich" class is' practically a minus quantity in the Dominion —is responding, and have responded, to the call quite as fully and enthusiastically as any other class. As for the manner of taxiilg wealth and paying for tho war, that is another thing and one which admits of a difference of opinion.—Ed.]