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The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. PRODUCTION AND TAXATION.

The statement made by the Premier in ■ tho House on Thursday night, concerning the Dominion's future financial responsibilities in connection with the war, is one that demands very serious consideration. "If," said Mr. Massey, "we are to meet our financial responsibilities our exports must be kept up to not less than thirty millions, and to do this all the energy and enterprise of which the people are capable will be required." The truth of this assertion is obvious. It is by increased production alone that the people of the Dominion will be enabled to meet the ever increasing burden of the war. What then is the position with regard to the attainment of the necessary additional output of produce? What steps do the Government propose to take in order to obtain the increase? These are two vital queries on which the fina...~il future of the coyntry depends. The situation may be briefly summed up thus: By the end of the current year there will have been absorbed in tho Expeditionary Forces about one hundred thousand men —the flower of our manhood, the most physically perfect, the best fitted to put their virility and intelligence into the imperative task of increased production, but as they have been withdrawn from this work and converted into soldiers theft services are not available. It i 3 true that some of them have returned from the front and been discharged from service. Few, if any, of these, however, are fitted for increased exertions, being indeed fortunate if able to do light work. Naturally, in the face of this depletion of our active man power, it is far easier to say that our exports must be increased than to carry out the order. One does not usually add by a process of subtraction. Moreover, at the end of the present year the men of the Second Division will be preparing to go into camp and every draft will still further reduce the productive power of the country, and when from this source another twenty-five thousand men have been absorbed for army purposes the position will be increasingly acute. It is well known that increased production depends on small holdings and intense cultivation. If any one will study the matter even superficially he will soon be convinced that small holdings and intensive cultivation cannot materialise except with a greater and not a lesser number of producers of the most active type, like those who have been sent to the front and performed prodigies of hard work. It is only reasonable to assume that the Premier is quite aware of this aspect of the question, but in his usual happy-go-lucky manner has brushed it aside, because it does not fit in with the go-as-you-please policy which animates the Cabinet. This is only too evident when we come to tho point of what steps the Government proposes to adopt to make the increased exports an accomplished fact. He admits that "all the energy and enterprise of which the people are capable will be required." But where is he going to get this energy and enterprise when all our fit men are sent into c-amp? He leaves that for "the people" to settle, contenting himself with giving the order and leaving "tho people" to carry it out. He even went a step further and proclaimed that the Government did not intend to institute a sysem of compulsory industrial service, but I relied on the work heing d«ne, if not te,

the men, then by "the women able and. willing to give assistance." The Military Service Board started this very convenient theory, and Mr. Massoy gives it his official benediction. Already men and women of any use in assisting towards the working of farms are doing all in their power, while the men that are left aie not onlj attending to their own farms, but in most cases supervising those of enlisted men. Having neglected to set on foot n scheme far national organisation all this time the Government is still neglecting this all important provision. They could not get the men needed for the reinforcements Without compulsion, so conscription was adopted, yet they are still depending on voluntary ell'orts to increase production, and,possibly, when too late to be of service, will awake to tho necessity of organising, national effort in production. Considering that taxation is based on what is won from the land and made marketable, this .policy of neglect is likely to lead to serious consequences in the future. Without being pessimistic, it may be claimed that the Government is going the ri<»iit vay not only to reduce tho exports, but to affect the ability of the producers to Snd the money required for the treasury. A policy of drift in war time is fourfold Store reprehensible than in normal cirenmstances. Apart from tho loss of Jevenue involved, there is the danger of the working capital of . the Dominion being whittled away fruitlessly. Let Uie Government take action to organise eur manhood to meet the new and difficult conditions ahead, let it enact legislation by which businesses can be amalgamated or conducted by the unfit militarily, let it see that the farms can be Manned so as to maintain production that is the foundation of all our finance and existence, and let it face and preVare for the possibility of tho .war not lasting till the end of next year but till the end of 1910.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19170908.2.12

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1917, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
916

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. PRODUCTION AND TAXATION. Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8. PRODUCTION AND TAXATION. Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1917, Page 4

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