NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2403, 8 March 1915, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The very considerable decreases in the Customs revenue during the-past two months have put a. new aspect on tho financial situation. With heavy calls for military .expenditure and this sudden falling away in revenue after the New Year, it is now evident that the year will end with a deficit. It is to be noted that the decrease in the Customs for February was only £74,000 as compared with February, 1914, while for January the decrease"' was i 1108,000.' This will naturally lead to a hope that the worst is over, but it is well not to be too optimistic. The causes of the decline .are three: First, the shrinkage in imports due to economies in tho Dominion and uncertainty as to the future;.second, the shortage of oversea vessels due to the withdrawal of ships to act as transports; and, lastly, the congestion in the docks in England in consequence of tho shortage of labour, etc. Unless some untoward development should occur in tho campaign it is reasonable to look for a gradual restoration of confidence in commercial circles, but the return of shipping conditions to anything approaching normal is far from being in sight. Vast bodies of troops may yet have to be transported over, long distances, and tho forcing of tho Dardanelles will mean a big demand for vessels to convey Russian grain tn Western Europe* .If is 9- .#oMw©, of congratulation that, despite toe big

falling off in the Customs yield, the other sources of revenue should have kept up so well that a slight excess is shown for the eleven months of the financial year as compared with tho corresponding period of the previous year.

The platform put forward by the Labour. Party for the approaching I municipal elections indicates that the party is still very much the slave of theory. On the principle that popular election is a good thing the committee is of opinion that the public cannot have too much of it>. Most citizens still havo a lively recollection of the tangle of ballot papers and candidates with which they were compelled to struggle a.t the last municipal general elections two years ago. Not content with the simultaneous election of Mayor, City Council,. Harbour Board, and Hospital Board, tho Labour Party now desires that the public shall bo compelled to flounder amid a further maze and directly elect the members of all trusts and boards arid, minor civic bodies. Two years ago Were asked to nlake a, selection from among 74 candidates for tho filling of 34 positions. That task will no mere ohild's play to municipal election day under a Labour regime. It would bo interesting to know whether the party proposes the electors' shall be periodically given a week or a fortnight's holiday at the public expense to perform tho heroic task before them and inquire into the views and capacities of the various candidates, or whether the idea is to deal with the work piecemeal, say, on a special weekly election halfholiday. !

In the matter of city ratine the Labour Party again allows its theories to run away with its oommon sense. It again asserts the principle that all rates Bhould be levied on the unimproved value of land, with special provision for taxing the increment in land values for civic purposes. The city's experience of rating on the unimproved value during the past fourteen years has made One thing abundantly clear. Of all people who have been hard hit by the indiscriminate ' application of the principle the hardest hit is the working man. Taxation on the unimproved value coming on top of the natural scarcity of miilding land around the city has brought subdivision to a fine art, and very thoroughly obliterated the family garden plot. For the man of small means the children's playground is now the Street. No one denies that speculative holding of vacant sections has been discouraged by the system, but that end could equally well have been attained without striking at the small man's garden had the advocates of the tax been more alive to practical realities and Igbs intent on blind adherence to an abstract theory. Labour's proposed tax. oii' the increment in land values h'd's a basis of justice beneath it, but as blindly applied by the party doctrinaires would be grossly unfair. Two vacant sections, let us suppose, Stand side'by side in,a certain locality. On one an enterprising citizen erects a large factory and establishes a thriving industry. The other section remains va-caht, but both are increased in value by the manufacturer's enterprise,' and both under the amazing Labour theory deserve to be mulcted equally under a penal taxi .;■

Some of the Opposition papers continue to harp on party politics, but appear to be sadly lacking in material for onslaughts on the Government, -A very fair type of. the class of stuff now being furbished up appeared in the party organ in Christchurch on 'Saturday.- "From all accounts," we are told, Maori land* is being mopped up by moneyed speculators in the King Country. It is "apparently" nobody's business to stop the aggregation of big estates. And the statutory authorities are "popularly supposed" to wink at the despoiling of the Maori of his lands by a process of palmgreasing. Everything is couched in the most general terms, not one specific instance of any impropriety is quoted, and a story that will not stand on its own legs is eked out with such phrases as "from all accounts," "apparently," and "popularly supposed." We are sorry to think that our contemporary is reduced to basing its castigations of the Government on pieces of unverified street-corner gossip, but what other inference is possible? The writer- obviously distrusted his information very much, and was plainly divided between his desire to throw some mud at the Government and his dislike of fathering his. "facte."