RETRENCHMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1921, Page 2

RETRENCHMENT.

PAINFUL, BUT IMPERATIVE. TO EASE TAXATION. Mr. E. Newman. M.P. for Manawatu, a leading member of the Reform Party, in the course of an address to a meeting of farmers at Rongotea, said that during the next session of Parliament legislation would be brought down aiming at reduction in the cost of Government. Retrenchment in the public service was necessary. It should start with the Legislature and stop before the lowest range of wages had been reached. The cost of Government in New Zealand, the speaker averred, was out of all proportion to the number of its inhabitants and must be reduced. This was a matter of necessity, however painful and unpopular it might be. New Zealand had a good public service, and he feared that great hardships might result by retrenchment, but it was inevitable. Farmers, excepting dairy farmers, he said, were fast approaching the point when they could neither pay nor borrow enough to meet taxes due. Land tax had to bo paid even in times when farmers showed no profit and that tax was now pressing very heavily on the farming community. New Zealand, it was said, led the world in humanitarian legislation, and the conditions of life in this country were second to none. We rghtiy proud of those things, but the time had come when we must pause and consider the financial position. Farmers could not continue to pay war taxation with slump prices for their produce, and it was the duty of the Government to revise the whole expenditure of the Dominion with a view to making it possible to reduce taxation. He felt sure Mr. Massey would recognise that and act accordingly. A reduction, in the cost of living must also be made by the. Government. New Zealand ought to be a cheap country to live in, as it produced the principal necessities of life —the best of wool, mutton, beef, butter and cheese, wheat, vegetables, timber and coal. Taxation and the tariff would be two most important subjects for legislation during the sesr sion, and he hoped the Farmers’ Union would see that its views were fully represented when evidence was taken.

Mr. Newman contended that provision should be made to allow residents of towns to join the .Farmers’ Union under certain conditions, because the aims and objects of the union were in the public interest. The cost of the transport of produce overseas was a matter of vital importance to every individual in New Zealand, not to the producers only, but also to the consumers. This was a matter in which the Farmers’ Union in combination with others might do good work for the country.

It was suggested by the speaker that the Farmers’ Union should federate with other bodies with similar views, such as agricultural, pastoral and dairy associations and sheepowners’ unions.