COMMENT ON BUDGET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1940, Page 4

COMMENT ON BUDGET

PUBLIC PREPARED TO MAKE SACRIFICES EFFECTIVE ORGANISATION OF RESOURCES. GOVERNMENT LEAD WANTED. “Well, at any rate, we know the worst,” said Mr J. H. Cunningham, general manager of the W.F.C.A., Ltd, this morning, in commenting on the Budget. “The public is prepared to make sacrifices and all that we are called upon to do is small compared with the tremendous sacrifices which the people of Europe and in England itself are called upon to bear,” Mr Cunningham continued. “The addition of Is in the pound as a national security tax will hit everyone and the sales tax will increase the prices of most commodities (other than foodstuffs) and the worker will find that his pound will not go nearly as far as formerly. Stocks are still fairly substantial in New Zealand but replacement will become more difficult as time goes on and costs of imported goods and also of goods manufactured in New Zealand are still rising. “We are asked to produce more bacon and farmers will definitely respond to the request of the Government in this regard and also to the request to produce more cheese,” said Mr Cunningham. “The public can help very considerably in making more of these commodities available to England by eating less bacon and cheese here in New Zealand. An extra 10,000 tons of bacon and 10,000 tons of cheese for export should be easily possible providing the ships are available to take same overseas. The Budget impositions will, apart from the farmers’ efforts, assist in this direction as the spending power of the people will be lessened and they will be unable to purchase as much bacon and cheese as previously. The public will not be satisfied with the huge Public Works vote, which should be cut down to £8,000,000, but will accept the other burdens of the Budget in a philosophical spirit. The Minister finalised his statement with the remarks: ‘ln the meantime work and service are the test,’ etc. Those engaged in shops, offices, warehouse and factories are prepared to do more and to produce more, but no lead has been forthcoming from the Government. Valuable time is being wasted. Why not organise this labour, which is there for the asking?” INCREASED SALES TAX PROCEDURE FOR COLLECTION. AN EXPLANATION AWAITED. The opinion that the additional sales tax would not make much difference to business was expressed by Mr H. P. Hugo, who observed that the tax was a hidden one. It would advance prices to some extent, though he did not know how the tax could be collected on sales. No doubt some explanation would be given by the Minister or the Price Tribunal next week. He pointed out that 80 per cent of the sales in his line of business were under 10s and with such articles as reels of cotton it would be most difficult to collect the tax on small sales, as the tax on these would hardly be assessable. In regard to imported goods the former five per cent sales tax worked out at something like nine per cent and with the additional five per cent it would be about 14 per cent. He awaited further information as to how the tax was to be applied.