Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1941. TAXATION AND PATRIOTIC FUNDS.
A SUGGESTION first put forward, as information, stands, by X the Mastertoil District Patriotic Committee, that patriotic funds should he raised by taxation, lias since given rise to a good deal of discussion in various parts of the Dominion. The suggestion was rejected m summary fashion by the National Patriotic Council, but more recently the Auckland Chamber of Commerce has put forward the specific proposal I hat a tax of l.!d in the pound on all wages and income should be imposed for patriotic purposes. Such a tax presumably would raise a sum of about £1,200.000 a year.
The Wellington Chamber of Commerce refused to endorse the Auckland proposal, on the grounds, amongst others, that it would entail Government control and an undesirable suppression of voluntary giving. Most of those who have given thought to the rather complex question involved no doubt will be of opinion that the Auckland proposal, as it stood, was crude and. did not meet the case. There is room, however, for an orderly a,nd complete overhaul of the current procedure in raising and administering patriotic funds.
Perhaps the first step that should be taken is to establish a clear dividing line between the provision'that ought to be made by the State for the members of our fighting and other war services and the further provision that can and should be made from patriotic funds. An opinion may be ventured that if the State does its full duty to our soldiers and others concerned the field left open to patriotic endeavour on behalf of the fighting forces will be narrowed very considerably. It is certainly not in accordance with present-day ideas that Hie members of our fighting forces should be provided by the State only with bare necessities and that anything over and above these necessities should cither be provided from patriotic funds or not provided at all.
Nearly everyone will agree, for instance, that the members of our fighting ami Avar services ought to be provided by the State witli all necessary clothing and with food rations as thoroughly adequate as can be made available in given circumstances. In addition it.is likely to be the general opinion that the State has a very definite duty where canteens are concerned—the duty of making available through these establishments a reasonably wide range of minor comforts and luxuries, including tobacco, and making them available at moderate prices.
It has been urged before and may be urged again that just as members of the Nava] service and of the Mercantile Marine are permitted, while at sea, to purchase tobacco duty free, the same privilege might very well be extended to soldiers on active service. Let anyone consider whether there is a single valid argument to be raised against this concession.
Then again, if it were decided, as it very properly might be, to sell a more or less varied range of minor comforts and luxuries in army and oilier canteens at something less than cost price, the expense entailed might very well be met from the proceeds of a patriotic levy. The benefits that woidd be derived in this way by all the members of our fighting forces — benefits considerably greater, perhaps, than they now derive from patriotic gifts—surely would outweigh objections to State, control and to “the suppression of voluntary giving.” The'rnling consideration should he the welfare of our soldiers and it is not in doubt that a very acceptable and desirable contribution to their material welfare could be made by a liberal and enterprising organisation of canteens.
The total question raised is complex and many-sided. Account has to be taken of assistance in the re-establishment of returning soldiers as well as of the welfare of soldiers and others on active service. It may be agreed, too, that there are instances in which any provision the State is likely to make can be and should be amplified by voluntary generosity. There are two cardinal conditions of sound policy that should be emphasised, however. One is that the Stale should not bo allowed to evade any part of its obligation Io the members of our fighting forces. 'The other is that patriotic appeals, in the extent to which they are justified, should be made always for purposes specified and clearly defined.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1941, Page 4
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722Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1941. TAXATION AND PATRIOTIC FUNDS. Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1941, Page 4
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