MARGIN OVER COSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1939, Page 7

MARGIN OVER COSTS

CI.AIMEI) BV MINISTER BREAKING POINT NOT REACHED IN TAXA I lON. DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL INCOME. WELLINGTON. This Day. The content inn l hat increases in wages anil salaries had more than (•aneelled out any rise iii the cost ol' living was advanced by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Sullivan, during the financial debate in the House of Representatives last night. The effective wage rale, he said, was het ter than it had ever been before. The margin over costs .was higher and it was obvious that tho* policy of the Government had been Io the advantage of the great mass of the people.

For half a century, the Minister continued. the I.nbour Party bad been lighting tor the abolition of poverty. The party had made its ease on constitutional action for the more equitable distribution of the national income. That policy was approved by the electors in 1935. and subsequently confirmed at the general election three years later. Tt. was ridiculous to suggest said the Minister, that the breaking point had been reached in taxation. During the evening he had been in conference with a representative group of business men from the main cities, and they were in great heart. “They wore enthusiastic and optimistic," said the Minister, “far more xi than ever in the past. It is the ■ amt- all through the community, and there is ample reason for it. Nothing can convince a business man more completely than his o,wn balance-sheet and most balance-sheets of recent years have been completely convincing to business men that they are far better off.” THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Replying to statements by Mr Hamilton, Mr Sullivan said il appeared that the Leader of the Opposition had a grievance against the guaranteed price whether there was a deficit or a surplus in the Dairy Industry Account. The Minister at the same time chided Mr Hamilton for having dropped his advocacy of the compensated price scheme. “It seems to me that the Leader of the Opposition is very hard to please,” said Mr Sullivan, “If there is a deficit in the account he becomes upset over that and wants to know who is going to pay for it. but if there is a profit he is equally upset. Thus he has a grievance whichever way it goes.”

Mr Sullivan said that Mr Hamilton had made considerable capital during his speech by quoting past statements cf the Prime Minister. Mr Savage, and other members of the Government, but that was a game that two could play. What, for instance, had become of Mr Hamilton’s compensated price scheme, which he had formerly advocated up and down the country, but which he now neglected entirely. At Martinborough in 1937, the Minister added. Mr Hamilton had warned a meeting against the theory of compensated prices, but at Morrinsville in 1938 he had said that, for years he had acknowledge the justice of the compensated price. Those were very contradictory statement, and Mr Hamilton seemed to have spoken with two voices. He had advocated a reduction in costs as a way in which the compensated price should operate without ever telling the farmers ortho people how he was going to reduce costs. The Government had never hoard how that was to be done from Mr Hamilton, from his colleagues, or from his journalistic supporters. RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN. “To suggest that no one m this x untry should differ tram the opinions and actions of British statesmen is carrying things altogether 100 far," -’aid Mr Sullivan, when replying to MT Hamilton's criticism of references by members of the Government to British foreign policy. "The Leader of the Opposition did not give chapter and verse for his references." Mr Sullivan said, "but surely we are to bo permitted to be interested in the welfare of the Empire and of the United Kingdom. I cannot recollect any member cf the Cuvcirunent having made the criticisms lie referred to, but I can assure him that ever since this Government came into office the relations between it and the British Government have been of the most friendly character. "When our views have been sought." Mr Sullivan added, "we have not hesitated to express our honest opinion. To say. however, that no one in this country shall be permitted to differ from British statesmen is carrying things altogether too far and is surely reminiscent of the position in the totalitarian States.