Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1185, 30 November 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1871.

To-morrow being the Ist of December will see the introduction of the new stamp duties. Our readers will remember that every receipt for sum of ,£2 and over must bear a 2d stamp, and every cheque or opder for any sum whatever, a similar stamp. Not only has the duty on receipts tjeeii doubled in amount, but the minimum sum for which stamps are required has been made £2 instead of ,£5, thus bringing this tax to bear on a large class which hitherto and most properly has been exempt from such duty. Of all the duties imposed during the }ate session —the bread tax being, of course, excepted—this is the most iniquitous, as it is made to bear with all its weight on the poorest class, their small earnings being taxed, not in the same ratio, which would be bad enough, but tually tq the same amount as the Jaige incomes qf the rich. A receipt for £2 must bear the same stamp as one for £2O, £2OQ, or indeed any amount whatever. Jts only analogy is fqund in the trick of a dishqnest tradeswhq ? with a dummy weight, subtracts the same quantity from everything weighed on his counter, whether it be one pound or twenty. By a reference tq the authorised report of the Rebate pn this tax, we find that Mr Iteid has fit least a word to say for thp plass to be> broiigUt under its operation. He made the reasonable proposal that of taxing small receipts, the minimum should remain at <£s, to be |gscd Idj as befoi*e, and that higher

sums should bear a heayier tax, say from £5 to £2O, Id ; from MQ to .£SO, 2d, and over £SO, 3d. Although there was no question that this would raise as much as the tax proposed, it was, strange to say, rejected. If it was found actually necessary to tax the laborer Id on each pound of his earnings, the tax should have been in proportion to the amount of the receipt. This was to some extent the case in England, when the same kind of stamp duties were introduced there. It is surely no greater hardship to make the receiver of Ml oo or 41000 pay Id in the pound than to make the humble recipient of £'2 do so. This also would have raised a sum that would have affected the revenue in a much more decided way than the tax proposed ; but it would have raised an outcry from a party that has more influence than the class which will be affected by the tax as it stands. Mr Shepherd also tried to prevent the tax on receipts being made 2d, but, like Mr Reid, failed to make any impression on the House. Mr Vogel said he knew of no law that would compel people to take receipts, but he thought most people had a prejudice in favor of doing so. In ,-pite of such prejudice, however, we believe that a conviction of the injustice of the tax will operate so as to cause it to be evaded as much as possible. Mr Vo«el estimates it to vield £5,000 du ring the 7 months of the financial year that it will be in operation, and the bulk of that sum will be from small re ceipts of between £2 and £5, which are much more numerous than receipts for larger sums.