Hawke's Bay Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY. THURSDAY, 7th FEBRUARY, 1867.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 452, 7 February 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY.

THURSDAY, 7th FEBRUARY, 1867.

“ Nulliua addict us jurare in verba maghtri

THE COST OF GOVERNMENT. Taxpaying is an unpleasant but, to a large extent, a very necessary condition of civilised society; we must be governed, and government costs money which must be paid. The public servants must receive an equivalent for the time, energy, and talent they place at the public disposal and employ for the public weal. This all persons will be ready to admit: while what ought to be the actual cost of government is a question upon which various individuals may differ. Perhaps no government exists that is carried on with the economy that it would be possible to exercise. The governing power has the control of the national purse, and there are multitudes of temptations constantly existing for the devotion of a portion of its contents to objects not actually essential to the welfare of the State. There are supporters to be rewarded with places and pensions ; opponents to be bought over or silenced ; and there is a far too easy estimate made, as a rule, of the value of the finances committed to its charge. New Zealand is par excellence the place for expensive government. We believe we are justified in saying that there is no State or community on the earth where the cost of government amounts to anything like the proportion that it does with us, and yet we are no better governed than others. If, as a rule, we enjoy a greater share of material prosperity, it is to be ascribed to causes foreign to the excellence of our government. In another part of our this day’s issue will be found an article taken from the columns of a contemporary, which we have much pleasure in transferring to our own, bearing upon this subject, and to it we commend the serious attention of our readers—few indeed of whom, we think, have the least idea of what it costs them to be governed ; and yet, of all things, this is amongst the most important. What should we say to any person in social life who could not tell to anything like an approximation what he paid per annum to his domestic servants ? and we cannot see that there exists so great a difference between the two classes of private and public servants that we should be over-careful of the cost of the one and entirely negligent |of that of the other.

The fact is, government in New Zealand costs too much. The wages of the public servants are paid in too great a ratio, and there are many more of them than would suffice for the duties of the establishments. The aci (uc a uiaoS xlCilCr, fax X* J cl_j C than their employers, and it is high time that the people united iu one great effort to reduce the expenses of the State. Our contemporary shows plainly—what we have often endeavoured to show —that it is not the rich only that pay the taxes ; on the

|uiniixdt j, iiuvjf paj uiUCm abCut the

|same amount utr head as their noorer

fellows, as the slightest examination of the abominable Customs Tariff will serve to show. The faxes'we pay are p,ot upoo our incoffies or property, but

upon our zoouj our euu our tools. The tea, coffee, and sugar, which are the actual needs of . the poor —the food .they havo r to eat —the clothes, boots, and shoes imported for men cai ■ the iiiutsriftls used in almost every handicraft—all pay their quota to the Government chest before ! - they can be appropriated to any use; so that it is really principally upon those- least able in bear the burthen it— a. a.'L ~ rv 11 r«i ti-Ulb kUC UUOb Ui AUiiS. i.O meet the burden of this taxation bow many have to struggle, submitting to all sorts of privations and denials, who, but for its pressure, would be in comfortable circumstances; extra hours have to be added to their labour, or the educat ion of their families mustbeeither neglected or imperfectly performed; and they are happy indeed if, by the greatest self-denial, they can keep free from debt. Imagine the head of a household of eight or ten persons contributing to the support of government something like 20s. or 255. every week of his life, whose earnings even in favourable circumstances scarcely ever amount to double that sum ; and it will not be necessary to point out the privations he must undergo to do it, nor how different his condition would be if he could devote that sum to his actual needs. So heavy and so galling is the burden that it cannot be borne ; and as it has grown upon us in proportion to the willingness with which we have hitherto submitted to it, and which threatens to grow more and heavier by longer submission—let one and all unite to cast it off; but if the enormous and costly establishments of the Government are considered a necessity, let the burden bo at least removed from the shoulders of the poor and placed upon those who are better able to bear it. This is the remedy, and nothing short of it. It is one that would speedily reduce the cost of Government which now obtains, simply because its funds are raised from the people ; but which, if raised from property, would be found to subside withiu somethiug like more reasonable limits.

Oar contemporary has other articles upon the same subject, which we shall reproduce as we can find room for them; and, as w T e have before done, endeavour to open the eyes of the public to the abomination of the sys tern of customs duties under which we are oppressed, and which only could enable a Government to draw from a people to the same extent which ours has done.