THE WAR, OUR DEBTS. AND OUR TAXES.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 199, 4 November 1864, Page 3

THE WAR, OUR DEBTS. AND OUR TAXES.

[Abridged from the Colonist, October 18.] The present position of New Zealand appears darker the longer it is considered, and what the end will be is not easy to conjecture. On the one hand we hear a new excitement rising among the natives in the North. We have notice of interference with the road surveyors, both in Tauranga and Wanganui, and opposition to the progress of the w r orks has been decidedly notified by the natives. All such feelings cannot fail to be intensified by the stories of the escaped Maoris, the excellence of their treatment as prisoners, and the ease with wlicih tiiey regained their freedom. For their kind treatment they appear to entertain no gratitude ; but, entrenched in a pah, with arms in their hands, they are prepared to dispute and oppose any interference with them, and are doing what they can to gain adherents and assistance. Such is the nature of the Maori that if this spirit is permitted to grow, by exhibition on our part of a disposition to allow this conduct to go unpunished, the pride and vanity which possess the race will restore that spirit of presumed superiority which induced them to believe that they could drive the pakeha into the sea.” On the other hand, if speedy punishment follow this new outbreak of the rebellious and aggressive spirit, it would cause the melting away of the ranks of the sympathisers with the Waikatos and with those who in the Taranaki, Wellington, and Hawke’s Bay districts would be likely to resort to amis if a Maori success, or an immunity from punishment should rise out of the present new and most unsatisfactory embroglio. The one great obstacle to all action, as we stated ten days ago, is the deplorable condition of our finance, which shows a total dcd)t—General and Provincial—as already known, of, in round numbers about four millions sterling. This includes the recent million loan, and portions of the provincial loans now in the market, which our present wise Provincial Government has foolishly increased. To compare our debt and population with the debt and population of England shows only a part of the evil. The British National debt is the property of the British people, who receive their dividends from the funds, and spend them in Britain. That debt then is a home debt. But the debt of New Zealand is a foreign debt—true, a foreign debt, to this our sapient Provincial Government has also added, by g°kig t 0 the Union Bank to borrow money !! a bank whose profits all go out of the Colony ! !! —every shilling of the interest of our loans goes to England, and is spent there. It is a heavy drain on our resources, and must bring its financial punishment. Our credit is gone, as the condition of our loans at home too abundantly proves. Without money, what can be done by the Assembly ? It may vote supplies, but whence are they to come ? Will the people of New Zealand submit to be taxed heavily to meet expenses hastily voted, and increasing year by year, in both the number and pay of salaried officials ? Or will they consent to bear, indeed, can they bear the cost of the war at its present enormous rate of outlay ? We think not. Our Customs duties are already extensive ; being at least double those of the Australian Colonies, where measurement duty on British manufactures is unknown. We are, therefore, pretty well taxed already on articles consumed by all classes, and the incidence of taxation bears with at least its full weight on what are termed the industrious classes. For this result we can blame only our own short-sighted prodigality in rushing into debt. From the Customs then nothing more can fairly be looked for. But it is open to the representatives of the people, who make the laws, and who are themselves generally men of wealth, as landowners,

stockholders, and woolgrowers, to show their patriotism in inventing a new tax —call it a war tax if you please—to meet the burden of extra liabilities, brought on by the general voice of the lawmakers. Land and property at large, are, without doubt, the main objects of legitimate taxation ; but only within the last few years has this patent and just principle been recognized, even in England., We tax the gold exported from New Zealand, although it is the product of much hard work and immense privation, and although its producers contribute largely to the revenue by the consumption of goods which have already been subjected to the Customs impost. Why should not ivool pay an export duty ? Why should flockowners, who reap the golden fleece from the backs oj tmtaxed sheep , fed on large blocks of land bought cheaply from the common property of the Colony, escape taxation on their large and rapid profits P There are men who, in a few years, have made twenty, thirty, and forty thousand pounds and upwards by sheep farming; and it is possible to give an example of an owner of property in laud .Htul sheep, in this province, who would not take less than half a million sterling for his possessions ?

Will our legislators look to wool, to land and to stock as sources of an increased taxation, to meet expenses themselves have created, or is ultimate repudiation of their own debts to be the alternative ? Given a direct tax, and the result will be, that people will look with a careful eye to the expenditure of the Government which collects the impost.