The Evening Star MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2910, 17 June 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1872.

Although many of us have been so long absent from Great Britain, that our most intimate friends there would appear as strangers were we to meet them unannounced, our interests are interwoven with national well-being at Home. This has been prominently forced upon. our attention by the experience of the last ten years. When trade has been depressed there, our profits have suffered too. When prices were low there, they reduced our income here ; when commericial disaster occurred at Home, our merchants were cramped and fettered. The central force was weak, and all the movements ‘ dependent upon it became correspondently feeble. These results have followed so often that they point to the advisability of well-considered and combined, efforts to render New Zealand as far as possible independent of such fluctuations. New markets must be opened up for our produce in one form or other: either in the shape of raw material or as manufactured articles. The process must necessarily be slow ; but we are travelling in that direction. If we are spared the infliction of a short-sighted interruption to our system of immigration and public works, our progress may be hastened with immense advantage to those now living in the country and to the new comers. The opening up of one additional market has proved to us how the value of our fleeces may be enhanced ; and if to this extension of trade we could add a field of supply for other products, in comparatively few years New Zealand might become independent of the fitful accidents of European politics. Although this is only anticipatory, not visionary, we have not yet reached that enviable position, and therefore every indication of the state of Home affairs is valuable, as it enables merchants and traders to look forward with some degree of confidence. In Great Britain the revenue is the index of the degree of national prosperity to a much greater extent than in New Zealand. There, industrial pursuits are so settled that they are not likely to be materially interfered with by even fiscal changes within moderate periods of time. A few more breweries or half a score new factories bear but a small proportion to the whole number in a population of thirty millions; and, moreover, the taxation of Great Britain is derived mainly from articles of general consumption by all classes, and from an income tax. These have been the sources of revenue since 1843, during which period certain duties on articles in eveiy-day use have been from time to time reduced, so as to bring them within the reach of every class of the community. The highest amount received prior to the passing of the first Reform Bill was in the reign of George the Fourth, in 1820, when the revenue reached the sum of £65,600,000. But the duties were found to be so oppressive that industry could not bear the burden. The population of Great Britain was then only about 14,000,000, Year by year the revenue fell, until in 1835 it reached its lowest point of about £50,500,000. That was the turning point. A change of system was made in 1841-2 by the late Sir Robert Peel, and with occasional fluctuations, in spite of vastly reduced rates of duty on the necessaries of life, there has been a rapid and steady increase. Mr Lowe, the Treasurer, this session made his Financial Statement before the end of the financial year, but he was able to speak with confidence as the result. His estimate was £72,315,000 for the year, and on the 16th March the receipts were £71,775,000; about half-a-million short of the amount calculated upon; but as there were eleven working days before the expiration of the financial year’, and the previous year the receipts amounted to £250,040 daily, it seemed pretty cerfcaixx the total revenue for the year would be £74,500,000, or about £2,000,000 in excess of the sum expected. Much of this excess was derived from excise and stamp duties; two forms of taxation generally supposed to be specially affected by social changes. The favorable state of the revenue at Home is not, however, altogether due to increased consumption. Last year Mr Lowe found it necessary to provide for compensation to officers in the army who had purchased commissions and desired to retire, and there were some arrears due on account of the Abyssinian War. He therefore added two pence in the pound to the income tax. The evidence of prosperity in the condition of the people at Home is that they were ably to pay that without interfering with other imposts, Jt has usually

been found in old countries where wages are low, and tihe cost of living high, that additional taxes seldom bring in the estimated amount of revenue. So invariable, in fact, has been the failure that it has become a financial axiom ; In taxation two and two do not make four. The reason is plain enough , where incomes are fixed and narrow, any increase of expense in one direction must be balanced by saving in another. So that if food and clothing are taxed, and an addition is made to the cost of one by a change of customs duty, there will be so much the less consumed of one or the other, or both, as it may happen, and the revenue will not increase. But during the last year, in spite of strikes and many hindrances to production, the population of Great Britain have been enabled to pay the extra income tax without diminution of their comforts. The customs duty reached the sum estimated, the excise exceeded it, other branches were also in excess, and therefore it is fair to conclude that things on the whole are in a prosperous state at Home. By the way, a key is given to the fall in wool, in the monetary intelligence received via Suez. The Bank of England raised its rate of discount to 4 per cent. This means the Bank put a check upon trade. Dear money implies cheap goods: hence wool fell.