THE STATE AND LITERATURE.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 483, 24 September 1948, Page 12

THE STATE AND LITERATURE.

Sir,-I have been interested in the correspondence evoked by the broadcast "Should the State Patronise Literature?" Like fellow scribes I think I could broadcast a convincing talk .on "How the State Discourages Literature." So much freelance writing is labour in vain, and returns from New Zealand contributions are so meagre, that the classic story concerning Socrates sitting with Phaedrus on the beautiful banks of the river Ilissus seems apt. Socrates told his companion that the grasshoppers chirping and jumping round them were once authors, and being obliged in their original state to live without food, to sing in summer and pine in winter, Jupiter transformed them, as most suitable to their circumstances, into grasshoppers; those animals being enabled by ,nature to live without food and to support themselves by the dews of Heaven.

The taxgatherer pursues the freelance journalist for his whack of the meagre earnings that fall from the editorial table. Not only must the writer pay income tax on his literary contributions, but he must also pay an additional impost on those earnings under the heading "Income other than salary and wages." And the taxgatherer has no faith in the honour of freelance journalists. He insists that the editors deduct for Social Security, and remit what’s left over. I'm one of that unfortunate tribe who has acceptances in countries where a higher regard for literature prevails, as well as higher payment, But I’ve discovered that the New Zealand taxgatherer is not satisfied and now demands his share from my pound of flesh earned outside New Zealand. Surely the New Zealand writer who can command the literary field abroad is valuable as a publicity agent and should be rewarded instead of being pursued by the remorseless taxgatherer. Where is the P.E.N. Club?

SCRIBE

(Oamaru),