The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3719, 16 June 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1883.

The Government have decided to treat Sir George Grey's notice of motion, "That in the opinion of this House a land tax should be imposed," and Mr Montgomery's notice of the introduction of a Bill to repeal the Property Tax Assessment Act, as party questions. It was impossible for the Ministry to do otherwise. We mistake the feeling- of the House if the Government cannot easily defeat the Opposition on those questions. It has been abundantly proved that the property tax produces a much larger revenue than the old land tax of Sir George Grc3f's, and it has the advantage of increasing 'with the ..prosperity of the colony. Under the operation its rich or a man becomes the more ho has to pay to tho State for the privileges ho has enjoyed by which he has been enabled to accumulate and preserve his wealth. There is no such elasticity ill a land tax. It must be either a hard and fast tax upon acreage, or a tax upon value ; if tho former it is unjust, and if the latter it is the improved estates that would suffer. Under the property tax lard is included in the general property of tho owner, and the more he possesses tho more he has to pay. Further than that land has to bear the whols burden of local taxation. The imposition of a Hind tax that will produce an equal revenue to that of the tax upon property could not but have ft. most j disastrous effect upon tho working classes; it would have the effect of checking improvements, and consequently of lowering the demand for labor. As the whole colony lives upon the production of the country, any tax that has a tendency to decrease that production injures all classes of the community. Major Atkinson, in his recent lectures, pointed out that taxation which presses unfairly upon any class must be an in jury to the State, and tliorpfore we should all endeavor to find out as far as possible whether our system is just, whether it is bearing unduly upon any class, and if it is we ought to insist at once on having the defect remedied. He next referred to Adam Smith's four canons of taxation — equality, certainty, convenience and economy. By equality is meant that each man should contribute towards the necessity of the State according to Ms means ; by'certainty, that he should know when and what amount he has to pay; by convenience that tho tax should be levied at tho most convenient thue for the taxpayer to pay ;by economy, that yory little more should be taken out of the pockets of the people than goes into the Treasury for the expenditure. We have various classes of the community, various employments, and possessing greatly varying means, and therefore it has always been necessary to have a variety of taxation in order that each class may contribute its fair share. Now, the more fact that one class pays a tax does not constitute it a class tax ; but a class tax is when a tax is levied upon a particular class, and the other classes of the community do not bear any tax to counter-balance it. The land tax is essentially a class tax. Major Atkinson spoke boldly out when he referred to the operation of the land tax. lie said: —"lt simply confiscates absolutely, once and for all, so much of the freehold of each man who is the owner of land at the time the tax is imposed. Now, I am not saying anything about a land tax in the Old Country, where land was originally ob-

tamed from the Crown on the clear understanding , and for no other consideration than that it was to bear a large part of tho burdens of the State. But lam speaking about it in this country, whore we have been begging people for years to take our land, and settle upon it. We have named our own price; we have held out every inducement to people to take up our land. I say that to come down suddenly upon these people and tell them they are to pay a special class tax because they hold the land which they bought from us seems to me a gross injustice. Now, let us look at the operation of this. Supposing a man possesses an estate worth £5000, and you put a land tax on him of, say, £50 —it does not matter what the amount may bo ; we will say that the amount of land tax put upon the estate is £50—now, what is tho effect of that ? Supposing he wants to sell that estate to-morrow, it is perfectly clear a purchaser will not give him £5000, the amount the land was worth before the tax was put on. The purchaser will say: '' Oh, no ; I have to pay £50 a year. Of course I must capitalise that £50 ; I must see what that £50 is worth, and I must deduct that from the amount I am going to pay you." He deducts that amount, and the only man who pays that land tax is the present proprietor. All other proprietors escape. The men in many cases, who have got what is termed the unearned increment—to catch which is one of the reasons given for imposing a land tox—goes scot free. You cannot catch the unearned increment b} r that means at all. You can only catch these men by the property tax. There you get everyone who has got the unearned increment at tho present time ; because there it is in hard cash or in investments; and the property tax immediately comes and puts its foot upon it. But under the land tax it is perfectly certain that it is impossible to tax anyone —mind, I am speaking only of a country like this—except the present holder of the freehold of the land. I hope you will understand, gentlemen, that land does not escape now, but that it pays like any other property."

The ship Cumbrian, bound from London for "Wellington, has on board a plant for electric lighting consigned to Mr G-. H". Swan. At tho meeting of the Victoria Royal Arch Chapter, 1577, E.G., yesterday ovening, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year;—"W. Beilby, M.E.Z.; J.M. Girdlestono, M.E.H,; R. Brooking, M.E.J. ; P. Ramsay, C. S. ; R. M. Miller, Scribe E.; J. W. Upchurch, Scribe N. In our report of the civil case Newton v. Burke in yesterday's issue we inadvertently employed the name of Mr Sutton instead of that of Mr Sutherland on one occasion in the evidence-in-chief of the plaintiff. As Mr Sutton is not in any way connected with the case, however, we presume our readers must have detected the error even without this explanation. In the Resident Magistrate's Court thi a morning , , before Captain Preece, R.M.j Edward Regan, for being drunk in a railway carriage at Hastings yesterday, was fined 5s and costs. A second charge was laid against the same man for using obscene language at the time of hie arrest. On this charge Regan was fined £2 and costs, or fourteen days' imprisonment with hard labor. Tho fines wore paid. There are two thoroughfares in town that on dark nights are extremely dangerous, anil in both cases the danger arises from the state of disrepair into which the protecting fences have been allowed to fall. We allude to Madeira road, and to the thoroughfare leading from Shakespeare road to Rosh'ii road. In the latter case the fence seems to have been wantonly destroyed ; but in tho former the fence has slipped down the bank. As in both cases the fences ■were erected for the protection of the lives and limbs of people using those thoroughfares, it would be as well if the authorities would sec that they were kept in repair. In reply to some letters that have lately appeared in connection with the concert given in aid of tho Convent schools we have much pleasure in publishing the following balance-sheet:—Gross proceeds of concert, £65 12s 6. Expenses—Steward (violinist), £2 2s ; H. G. Spademan, hire of piano and services, £2 2s ; printing and advertising, Herald, £7; printing and advertising, Telegraph;, £7; hire of theatre, £6 10s; carpets for stage, 10s ; hire of piano for orchestra, £1 ; man to fix scenes, &c, 15s; Neal and Close, refreshments, &c, £2 7s; programmes, satin, lace, &c, £2 ; cartage of instruments, music stands, chairs, benches, &c, to and from theatre, £1 5s ; total, £31 11s. There are sundry other expenses connected with obtaining copies of music for chorus, orchestra, &c, also in connection with the practices, which amount to about £6 or £7, but are not charged for. Tho amount handed over by tho committoo towards the objects of the concert was £35.

Messrs Allsopp distributed nearly 14,000 lbs. of prime beef amongst their Burton employes at Christmas, as well as a great number of turkeys and hares. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, premier Duke of England, triod to enter Palace Yard, London, during the Bradlaugji demonstration at the opening of Parliament:, but was prevented by a policeman, whq didn't recognise him. In vain the Duke revealed his august dignity. "You a Peer?" cried tho guardian of tho law; "you'rnopeer; you'raßradlaughitc." And tho Duke had to give it tip as a bad job. Society in. St. Petersburg is very much, disturbed just by a little incident that took place at the Grand Duke Vladimir's ball costume. It appears that a certain. Princess, one of the loveliest and fastest women of the Northern Venice had the boldness to grace tho scene in the airy costume of a Biussalka, or water-nymph : very tightfitting pink tricot, a few yards of azure gauze picked out with wator-lillies, and a fan. And when tho Princess approached with other ladies to do homago to the Empress, tho august lady cast a look of disgust and indignation on the fair naiad, then turned her back on her, and whispered a few words to the Emperor, who was also visibly shocked. A few minutes later the Grand Duke Vladimir stalked up to the Princess, offered her his arm, and conducted her to her carriage. Old Sores!— Many persons are greatly troubled with old sores that they cannot succeed in healing; they try all sorts of applications, lotions, plasters, poultices, Jiniments, &c, &0., but all in vain—the open wound remains sullen and obstinate. For the only modo of healing all such sores consult Professor Moore, Medical Hall, Waipawa, and receive advice gratis.— [Advt.] There is nothing known better calculated to invigorate the constitution, than Wolfe's Scukaits ; it braces the nerves, tones the functions, and sets tho machinery of the frame in healthy operation.—[Advt.]