TAHATION IN AMERICA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 492, 22 September 1871, Page 3

TAHATION IN AMERICA.

The Amc'can newspaper, the Peopl'-s P- :- trrio.l Tan-payer, is one of the cnriosiWe« of literature. It is about the size of a small table-cloth, and the inner sheet is occupied by a caricature representing Horace Greeley da "fifing the ricketty and hydrccephalons oTipring of Protection. two of them, the wool-growers and the wool-manufacturers, being appropriately depicted as engaged in a bout of fisticuffs. Ground tins are grouped pictorial illustrations of the fact that the American farmer rises in the rooming and puts on Iris flannel shirt taxed at G5 percent.. the; Iris trousers' taxed at CO perceit. ; bis vest, CO per cent.; ove-vo.-t, COper cent.; .draws on his boots, taxed at S5 per cent.; places coals fared at GO per cent, in a stove taxe d at 55 per cent, to cook liis breakfast, eats bis meal from a plate taxed at 45 per cent., w\h a knife and fork taxed at £5 per cent.; seasons his food with salt taxed at 103 per cent., and pepper 120 per cent.; pui s on bis hat, taxed at 70 cent., &c ; and finaly “This is his end—bis fate is recorded on marble taxed at 70 per cent., and he gofs where there are no tariffs, the Inscription on his tombstone being, ‘He/ei'cs the American farmer, taxed to death by monopolists.’ How protection operates to tbe spoliation of industry and tbe enrichment of monopolists is forcibly illustrated by examples like the following : —“ln the case of the revenue duty on tea, of tbe increased cost to tbe people of 9,500,000 dollars exery dollar went to pay the expenses of Government ; but in the case of the protective duts on iron, out of 14,830,000 dollars paid by the people, only 774,300 dollars was received by the Government, the balance, 14,141,000 dollars, going into the pockets of our ironmasters. This tax, of which tbe Governmenr received such a small part, increased the price to the farmer of every tenpenny nail, ef every spade or plough, of every stove, and of every horse-shoe'; for, on ■ «very pound of iron be uses he pays a tribute •of nearly balf a cent, not to the Govern* tnent of tbe country, but to tka makci* «f Sron.* )

down at public auction for I Of. I have heard it questioned, was that the value ? of course it was, collusion with a dead man’s property is impossible. The beach and bank workers are for the most part in full work, in some few instances the river is too high for the bottom to be reached, but where that is the case the time is fully occupied in stripping. At Conroy’s Gully everything is going on as merrily as a marriage bell, there being plenty of water, the gullyworkers are getting over a lot of ground, pud with fair returns. At the reef the work is progressing without a hitch. The tunnell has been pushed into the eighty feet level where the seam] continues about eighteen inches thick, and carrying good gold, during the week some very rich stuff was come'upon, a few dishes washed out about three penny weights of loose gold each. A |e!eaning up of the Battery will take place the end of thisjweek. In municipal or other matters there is nothing of direct importance to chronicle ; the Mayor and Councillors meet regularly, as do the school and other committees ; but what they do is a sealed book. My unsophisticated nature always thought it was usual to supply the Press with their proceedings. I see I live behind the age, that good old custom is defunct