Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1880.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 128, 11 June 1880, Page 2

Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1880.

The Financial Statement made by the Colonial Treasurer last Tuesday evening, of which a summary will he found in another portion of our columns, is an exhaustive one, and shows a firm determination to put a hold front to the difficulties into which the Colony has drifted through mal-ad-ministration and recklessness in times past. The anticipated deficiency lias been exceeded, the amount being, in round numbers, .£1,000,000, and is now added to our Public Debt, which on the 31st March last was £27,422,011. Tim revenue, which for the past financial year of nine months, has been decreasing in almost every beancli during that period, was £2,115,200. The manner in which the Treasurer proposes to meet tin’s very unsatisfactory state of affairs, will behest understood by a perusal of the summary of his statement. It will be observed that large reductions arc contemplated in the Civil Service, subsidies to Local Bodies are to be abolished, and all Government properties, with a few trifling exceptions, are to be taxed, as are also Maori lands. Treasury and Deficiency Bills are to be issued to the extent of £200,000, making the total issue one

million in nine months. Personal effects, such as books furniture, <fcc., are to be exempted from the operation of the Property Tax Act, which is certainly a step in the right direction,

as it removes a very inquisitorial and objectionable part of the impost which was naturally looked upon with great disfavor by the great body of the ratepayer. Wo are sorry to find a tax imposed of sixpence per gallon on Colonial Beer, as it is taxing native industry, and this, in our opinion, is a wrong principle. Ever since the first starting of this journal we have advocated the fostering of local industries, even to the extent of a moderate protective duty as one of the great means of promoting the country’s welfare, hut this tax goes in exactly Hie opposite direction. We have no objection to the tax on imported beer, but to impose, sixpence per gallon on the New Zealand made article, is aiming a direct blow at an

important branch of local trade all over the Colony. It is true that the deficiency must be made up, but we should have preferred to have seen this done by an Income Tax, or in almost any other way than by discouraging the principle for which we have always contended—of moderate protection to local industries. It will be remembered that when a former administration imposed a tax of only three half-pence per gallon on Colonial beer, there was such an outcry against it that it had to he withdrawn and the duties paid under it refunded. We do not look upon it as a dignified course for a Government to have not the courage to stand up by their opinions, if they believe them to be right, and if it is their opinion that beer is a luxury which must be taxed, on the gro' id that all luxuries should be taxed, and necessaries go free, we should agree with them except for the fact, that for the reasons above stated, we consider this fax upsets a cardinal point in our political economy — an opinion which is not confined to ourselves alone, although we wore

amongst the first to advocate it here. The Treasurer lias admittedly had a most difficult and unpleasant task before him, and his evidently anxious desire to state the case fairly, and to put the financial position of the Colony in a clear and intelligent way, so that it can lie understood by everybody, is worthy of all praise. In its main features the policy sketched out in the Statement, will, we think, meet with the support of a majority of the Parliament, but it may probably bear some modification in details. We have at all events no faith in the Opposition being able to jiropo.se better measures on the whole, or united enough to carry them out.