THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2031, 27 August 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1880.

The post of Premier of New Zealand in the present financial crisis is no sinecnre. If we review the efforts of the present Government to make both ends meet by reducing the expenditure within the income of the colony, we shall find that the struggle has been an uphill one from the very commencement. Money had to be forthcoming from somewhere. Reductions in the Civil Service and in connection with public works would not suffice to balance both sides of the ledger. New taxation was absolutely necessary, and in consequence new taxation was resorted to. The question was from whence were the necessary funds to be drawn. Certain broad principles were enunciated and agreed to by the majority, and the Government, building their financial policy on this substratum, drew out their proposals. The question of principle had been settled long ago. The classes of the community that could afford to be—and, in consequence, were to be —bled, had been singled out, and the Treasurer, for the current year at all events, had an apparent right to expect that his financial proposals—the broad principles having been already accepted—would meet the approval of his party. But Treasurers, like other individuals in humbler situations of life, are apt to miscalculate. A number of members who thoroughly believe in the present Government, have thought fit to demur to the sixpenny duty on beer, and vote for its reduction to threepence. We are not now arguing as the abstract justice of the case. Possibly, nay probably, the publicans and brewers were somewhat hardly dealt with, but government at largo is a matter of compromise, and evidently there is no tax on any section of any community that is not handicapped with serious objections. The Government itself was by no means in love with the sixpenny duty. It was recognised as a financial necessity, unless some other means of “ raising the wind ” were to be resorted to. Objectionable taxes imposed for financial purposes are, unfortunately, not a novelty in any country. Where the principle of the tax is infinitely more vicious than in the case under consideration, the impost is adhered to because the country cannot afford to spare the money and the individuals in charge of the finance of the country think themselves hardly used if their plans are upset by a majority who will not recognise the principle of expediency. The sixpenny duty, moreover, being merely experimentary, and the sting having already been taken out of it, Major Atkinson, we hold, has a decided grievance when he reflects on his plans having been upset at the last moment by the body of members who, hitherto, have by no very decided demonstration, shown that they were averse ts his proposal. That the question is in any way a Government question is, of course, absurd. Sir G. Grey naturally alluded to the result of the vote as if, more or less, it had been a vote of want of confidence. He is thankful for small mercies, but had the motion in any way partaken of the character with which ho chose to dub it, he would have had but little chance of making the remark. Indeed the division list shows that the question is in no way whatsoever considered a party question in the House. The session is nearly over, and the reconsideration of the tax might well have been held over to next session. We do not say so from sympathy with the measure, but because the House had already to all intents and purposes sanctioned it, and any hurried rearrangement of the financial proposals at the present moment is highly objectionable. That the money is not required is a fallacy, and, granted that it is required, the majority who voted for the reduction of the duty to threepence have taken upon themselves a grave responsibility, and have most decidedly been very hard on the Treasurer.