The feilding star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Publislied. Daily. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1897. THE VIRTUE OF TAXATION.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 262, 11 May 1897, Page 2

The feilding star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Publislied. Daily. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1897. THE VIRTUE OF TAXATION.

o Surprise has often been expressed thafc the colonists of New Zealand have uot protested against the heavy loads of taxation— direct and indirect — they have to bear, especially since the present political party assumed the reins of Government. It would appear, however, that thoy are not alone in this apathy. In Europe and the United States a remarkable change has come over the people in this eonneetiou. Formerly the desire for (drift was so strong that it excited temper, and tho populace were as irritably unreasonable when the cry of '• Pillaging the tax-papers " was raised as a wife overpressed with her household economies when she hears that her husband has been guilty of some extravagance. This "ignorant impatience of taxation " became a commonplace, not only with statesmen, but with historians. So completely bas that mood changed as to become nearly unintelligible. The Budgets in Prance, England, and the United ritatcy have increased abnormally, and yet the people are content. The President of the United States, who is au economist if he is anything, is not in favor of retrenchment in auy direction, but for higher taxation. Nor is uiat the v.'h.-de extent of the change. !> is quite certain from tbe silence of tho people that they either like the expenditure or think that in the present state of opinion resistance is futile. A great part of the new expenditure is drawn from the pockets of the people hy direct taxation upon income and bequests, but they neither resist by voting nor in tbeir speeches or literature. This state of public opinion deprives the cbarge of extravagance of the • force which once made it a weapon for the overthrow ot Governments. • The people in England (says a contemporary) ■no longer desire to, keep their money fructifying in their pockets; while in France and America they read aud accept proposal after proposal for more indirect taxes which they know : will make things dearer to them, with a dull hope that somehow they will have more money to pay the taxes with, or that in some

way not apparent the foreigner will have to pay the. bill. The fact that at all events they have to pay it first in increased prices does not seem to fret them at all. This change is partly accounted for in the increased wealth of the community. Ifc is surplus money which is spent willingly, and the surplus wealth of tho freo countries has increased faster than even its positive wealth. Thafc which is taken from a person when he is prosperous is not felt like that which is taken from him when he is in adversity. There can he no doubt either that the decay of hostility to Governments as Governments which has for half a century been most marked in the free countries and has produced, among other things, a whole crop of proposals for nationalising everything— that is, for trusting tho Government with everybody's property — has produced a much greater readiness to spend on Government account. The Germans, who are practically under an absolute monarchy, fret under their taxe3, and, when they can, resist fresh ddnandp, while the French and English, which are freo countries, comply cheerfully with the most exorbitant demands. How far this new spirit is likely to go cannot even be surmised, but an end must come some time. Iv Protectionist countries especially high taxes ancl high prices will together wear out popular patience, and the first noto of the first half of the twentieth century will be embittered fiscal discussion.