LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3096, 29 May 1917, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH

' Sir,—Eeverting to my letter addressed to you a few days ago on. this subject, I did not overlook tho fact that Mr. Tripp's scheme provided for tho imposition of a tax for one year only, the amount derivable from the " proposed source to be payable in five yearly instalments, but omitted reference to tins point at the time, anticipating that 31 r. Tripp would fiirher. elucidate his proposal and probably direct attention to this feature as disposing of the slight criticism in which I indulged. As lie has not so far done so, I will, with your ■ permission, now content myself with indicating two very- serious objections to taxation on the lines suggested by him. (1) In the experience of the taxpayers of the Dominion there is, so far ns I am aware, no instance on record where taxation once imposed, even when announced as, a temporary expedient, has not become permanent.

(2) The proposal .embodies tlie pernicious principle of confiscation, and let that principle once appear as an outstanding element in the statutes of the land and good-bye may be said to industrial progress to enterprise of any kind, to thrift, and prudential provision for the proverbial rainy day, and thus adversely affect not merely the individuals more directly concerned, but generations to come.

When It conies to be a recognised fact that what may be honestly accumulated as.the result, of frusnlitv.'industry, and individual effort of the highest order can be ruthlessly appropriated by statute, framed possibly by men the majority of whom may be neTeona-lly unaffected, then it stands to reason that one of two things must hnppen: either ofl'orf will cease, or recourse will be had to methods of concealment that enn only result in the moral debasement of Hie race.

Tn the year 1563 a Land Bill wns introilncetl into Hip T>«islntive Assembly of New South Wales subsequently known ns tlie "Tiobertson Act." Under the measure the whole of the Crown lands within a large area were thrown open for free selection before survey. It was on the whole—although hatched in the bitterness of class hatred—an Act eminently calculated to promote settlement, nnd its provisions were singularly simple, but it omitted entirely all regard for the pioneer oecnpant.s who. although only tenants at will, and with merely—to <i large extent—a moral claim to consideration, and that claim based as it could have been on the incalculable service rendered by the intrepid men who faced ami braved all the perils of early settlement, was one that should have been recognised by equitable adjustment, but it was not; the consequence being that to avoid ruin by the loss of all that toight have been gained during years of toil, the evil practice of 'Mummying" became rife, and the Mother Australian State become steeped—in , perjury. Increased taxation the people of this Dominion must face, but let it be contributed to by all classes with a due regard to what is fair and just, and not by laying violent hands on the fruits of industry, toil and sagacity, a course too often propounded by those who, with equal opportunity, have failed to rise from the ranks of the waster and the prodigal. , ■ '

Tax to a reasonable extent that which capital produces, but capital itself,, if liable to seizure, at the caprice of the Legislature, mav be diverted elsewhere; and that which. U so essential to the development of a new country may largely disappear, not necessarily for inoTe remunerative employment, but for safety. —I am, etc.,

INQUIRES ■Wellington, 2Sth May, 1917.