COLONIAL TAXATIO.N

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 18, 20 May 1867, Page 115

COLONIAL TAXATIO.N

-, ? ' ‘ [Nelaon Examiner.J .. r; : ' . no. x. , /. ", ’> ~ 'directing attention I 'tip the .Postal department "of our piiblic seryiee and its expenditure, as we did a' week ago, we pointed out that the most practical way of looking at such questions was a twofold we had to consider what ,we obtained, and what .we paid for it. On Saturday last, we showed that we pay for the Postal Service; this year, as nearly as may be, - £200,000, or . one-sixth : part of the whole revenue; it remains to be considered what we get in return for this - vast expenditure. ‘Let-us begin with the heaviest of the items that go to make up'this grand total.,. First, then, there jis ,the conveyance of mails by sea; this costs at least £65,000 this year ; £55,0000f this goes to the Panama Company, for running the mail steamers between Wellington and Panama once a month. Now. there can be no doubt that a Panama Mail Service, is a very agreeable sort of thing. It is pleasant to get late news from England; it is profitable to be able.; to send late money drafts to England. There is even something gratifying to our feelings of importance in being able to say that we are the first port of arrival and last of departure of a main line of Ocean steamers to and from England. We have heard some of our public men go a' little farther, and say |jhat there; is something, ennobling in our boldly undertaking this great work, "but as we have not yet discovered that men are generally ennobled by over-running their means and becoming bankrupt, we cannot conscientiously insist upon this advantage of the Panama line. Let us see, then, what this amounts to in reality. The first point gained is supposed, to be late news from England j this, it may be observed, we do not get to any appreciable extent, as the Suez line supplies us with-telegraph news up to as late a date as reaches us via America. The advantage of getting a week’s later newspapers is something indeed, but this is counterbalanced by the arrangement whereby we have to. pay three times * as much for the papers that come by this route. With respeet to letters, there is a very clear advantage in the Panama line. The .merchaat can save above a fortnight iu most parts of the colony by sending vid Panama, and the banks can. make a very considerable money saving by'sending money home. The only thing is that it is not the public that reaps the benefit of this saving, while it is the public that pays the cost. The merchant and the banker may put so much more money into his pocket in the year in this way, but the working man, the shopkeeper, the clerk, these people are not one halfpenny the richer for it, while they are much the poorer for the expenditure on the service. Surely this is unfair iu its operation. We have no objection whatever to seeing the merchant and the banker grow rich amongst us, but we confess to an objection that they should grow rich upon us—that is, at our expense- Hardly any of us want to use the Panama line in any way ; we do not get our newspapers by that route; we do not care whether our letters go by that or any other route ; not one in a thousand of us' has the most remote idea of going to England v i& Panama ; and, in short, so far as the mass of the public is concerned, the service has not the sympathy of the colony, at all. A few merchants and a few bankers make increased profits by its means, and it may be that Wellington is alittle better off through its being the port of call, .but this is literally the whole benefit which the colony derives from an expenditure of £65,000 a year. We are quite aware that the colony is pledged to this for the'present, and we should be the last to suggest any repudiation of the contract. Our object is a different one. We find ourselves in a most critical position, owing tp the. course our politicians have followed for years, and are still followingand ourobject is to make the public see? how evil that course is, that they, may distrust the men whe have followed.it, and insist upon a total change.

Then we have .the Telegraphic establishment, .which posts about ; £50,000 a year. This, we confess,'we are utterly at a loss to understand. The sum is so enormous compared with the ; results : attained, that we are tempted to fancy theire must be some mistake about it.; - If there is,not—-if it costs £50,000 a year .to maintain telegraphic communication between the various, parts of this; island and Wellington : —then we say it is_another case of'the headlong folly, of; our ;rulers. , For what Idoes the public benefit by this expenditure? ■ Is it so great an advantage to have the telegrams by the English mail a day or two sooner than we should otherwise :doP Does, it . put any thing in the pocket of an ordinary working settler that be should be able to send a message to Southland;pr;Welh n gt!?u, when he has. nqt the ,smallest 'connection withy .either place ? Here,-again, is one class, and a very small one, that weeps the benefit bf this'expenditure.'- puiTOscs' df commerce this telegrapHic commuhicatien is really.: important, then, we say by aU means let those interested pay for its maintenanoe, and do hot'load'the generalpubUo whodon’toare in ■ the.least. about it, and can hardly by any conceivable, accident, gain r anyshing