The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 9.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 384, 9 April 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, APRIL 9.

We have stated that the question of taxation is destined to lie a crucial one with the Parliaments of the future. The financial embarrassments of the Colony render this inevitable. There is no escape from it. For years past, under the Vogel-Atkinson administration, a forcing process has been carried on at an enormous cost, and debts have accumulated. Money has been spent lavishly, huge liabilities have been incurred, and these have to be met. Of the ability of the colony to meet its foreign engagements there can be no doubt. But in order to keep faith with the colonial creditor additional taxation has become a necessity. The question upon which political opinion is divided is the form which that taxation should assume. In a previous article we endeavored to show that the present system is ruinous. Customs duties of an indiscriminating character united with a property tax are suicidal. No country in the universo, however naturally favored, could stand such imposts and enjoy prosperity. It is not the amount of taxation with which we find fault; it is the manner in which it is levied. It is absurd for a Government to talk about developing -colonial industries after it has initiated a form of taxation which is directly designed to drive enterprise and capital out of the colony. With a property tax throwing out its deadly upas branches over our young manufactures, the appointment of a Native Industries Commission is simply a farce.'

The great blunder of the Government —and it is an error that admits of no extenuation—is that in their eager desire to avenge the infliction of the land tax, they have rushed pell-mell against the best interests of the colony. If-the intention was to revenge the taxation of the country upon the towns, the advocates of the new system have entirely failed to accomplish their purpose. Not only have their aims been defeated, but they have acted the part of a man who cuts off his nose to spite the rest of his features. A property tax means a general depreciation in the value of every •description of property. However objectionable to owners of land a land tax may have been, a property tax is far more objectionable. The large estate holder suffers keenly, not on account of what he has to contribute to the State, but because, in consequence of the general deterioration in the value of land, buildings, and machinery, the demand for property has declined, and he can no longer realise in a prosperous m.,rket.

In a reply to the unemployed of Dunedin, the members of that city who have been promoted to seats in the Cabinet, attribute the bad state of the labor market to " protracted commercial depression," and refer to " the duties of a Government in an emergency like the present." Such terms coming from such a source are sickening. The allusion to the protracted commercial depression is hypocritical. Who are chiefly responsible for this depression ? Why is there an emergency ? The colony has all the elements of prosperity within her grasp. Ships laden with the produce of a plentiful harvest are leaving in rapid succession for Europe, yet laborers and their families complain that they are. unable to obtain a decent livelihood. This is surely an anomalous state of affairs. The condition of New Zealand would undoubtedly be hopeless if, under a natural or rational system of Government, "commercial depressions" or " emergencies " during a season like the present couid possibly occur. The existing state of affairs is due, we submit, to gross and culpable mismanagement. We do not say that Major Atkinson and his colleagues have erred wilfully, but we submit that they have entirely mistaken their vocation, and that their system of taxation will live on record as one of the greatest blunders to which a British Colony has ever been subjected.

Let us briefly glance at what the Government has achieved. By increasing the ad valorem customs duties, it has materially increased the cost of living. The comforts and luxuries of the laboring classes have been specially selected for prohibitive duties, and what is the consequence ? Have the objects aimed at been achieved ? Has the increased taxation improved the revenue ? Quite the contrary. Working men have had tv submit to the deprivation of their accustomed luxuries. They have been compelled to forego some of their usual indigencies. They have been lectured by Government organs on the sin of extravagancies in eating, drinking, and dress. Their clothes have been patched, their tobacco bills reduced, the comfort of their households has suffered., and who has benefited ? Not the State, for the Customs revenue for the last quarter shows a marked decline. Not the merchant or retailer, for a diminished consumption has produced a great falling off in his receipts. The result of the revision of the Customs tariff by the present Government is well summarised in Messrs Oliver and Dick's reply to the unemployed—"protracted commercial depression.."

The Government were well warned of the-consequences that would follow their reckless taxation scheme. They refused to listen to reason, and their folly has been demonstrated. If the revision of the Customs duties has had a damaging influence on commerce, the introduction of an all round property tax has had an equally injurious effect on applied capital. If has lowered the value of property, discouraged investment, and driven oapi-

tal out of the colony. A property tax is irrational and unjust, because in its relation to applied capital it is disproportionate and aggressive. A property tax direct'y menaces every kind of improvement or manufacturing enterprise. It is an invulnerable foe to the development of national resources. If the Commission on Native Industries were inclined to be candid, they would, instead of consulting Chambers of Commerce, tell the Government plainly that the first thing to be done is to remove the barrier that stands in the way of the employment of capital in New Zealand. New enterprises are always doubtful, but a property tax is certain. It does not discriminate between undertakings that are profitable and those that are unprofitable. The man who invests ten thousand pounds in an unprofitable undertaking is compelled to contribute ten times as much to the State as the individual who has only spent a thousand pounds in a highly lucrative investment. It is not the profits, but the capital, that the State attacds, ;and this constitutes the great iniquity of a property tax. We have said sufficie.it, we think, to show that the present system of taxation is unsound in policy, bad in theory, and destructive in practice.

The following correspondence has been handed us for publication by Mr J. D. Garwood, Chairman of the Akaroa Railway Committee :— " Christchurch, sth April, 1880. " Dear Mr Garwood, — I enclose herewith a telegram I received to-day from the Chairman of the Railway Commission, which you can publish for general information. "I see by the papers and your telegram that the deputation is vigorously going about the work. I hope a strong case may be made out by carefully collected facts. " Yours very truly, " W. Montgomery. " P.S.—I am informed that the advertisement for the plate-laying of the 17 mile section will probably appear on Wednesday. « W. M." The telegram enclosed is from the Chairman of the Railway Commission to Mr Montgomery, and runs as follows :— " Invercargill, April 5. " W. Montgomery. Esq.—Commission to reach Christchurch about the 20th inst., but will advise you a few days before. Commission intend to visit Akaroa. " Oswald Curtis." We are glad to be able to congratulate the inhabitants of the Peninsula on the zeal and activity shown in this, a matter of such vital importance to the district, by those to whom they have entrusted their interests. Especially are the thanks of the public clue to the Chairman of what was at first a deputation, but has come now to be looked upon as a standing committee, and the member for the district. It is gratifying to learn that the "Commission intend visiting Akaroa. We feel confident that an inspection of the capabilities of our fertile lands and magnificent harbor will go farther towards convincing the most sceptical of the necessity for a railway than any amount of more or less interested eloquence. This, and the evidence of carefully compiled and reliable statistics are what we have to rely on in support of our case.

Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of the Commission and the Government as to the completion of the line to Akaroa harbour, there is one point which ought to be brought prominently and forcibly before them, with a view to a decided recommendation from them being pronounced in regard to it. We refer to the question of the site of what we might call the present terminus of the line. Onr readers are aware that the seventeen mile section wid soon be completed, and that what is called a sectional survey is in progress, if it is not complete, of a further section to Little River. Government have given a more or less distinct promise to ask authority to construct this section during tbe ensuing session of the Central Assembly. The question is how far this section is to extend. The general impression was that it was to be eight miles in length, which would have brought it well up the Main Valley. We understand, however, that the surveyors, presumably by instructions, are stopping short at six miles, and terminating the line somewhere about Olphert's. If it were intended to demonstrate the inutility of the line, no surer means than the above could have been adopted. A line, terminating at the spot indicated, would carefully stop short of population, produce, and everything which could assist to render a railway valuable and payable, Whereas, by continuing the line a couple of miles further, magnificent stores of timber would be tapped, providing immediate employment for the iron horse, and a fertile valley would be opened up for settlement. We hope the Committee will not lose sight of this point. .

In a futnre issue we shall point out how the services of such a thoroughly representative body as the present Committee may be utilised for other purposes of public interest and importance.