Mataura Ensign WITH WHITH ARE INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN FREE PRESS AND WAIKAIA HERALD, GORE, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24TH, 1883. PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION.

Mataura Ensign, Volume VI, Issue 284, 24 August 1883, Page 2

Mataura Ensign WITH WHITH ARE INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN FREE PRESS AND WAIKAIA HERALD, GORE, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24TH, 1883. PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION.

It is evident from the way that the supplementary estimates are growing that there is no disposition among bon. ■-"•embers to deny themselves or their *?: . of any iusury, As long as the district. „v for Juxurjes Tjnthout people can p^ , wt oUtJay I|Bt Don-owing to t .ay c... Ji^ nt them by all means have luxuu. we feel certain that the question v,paying is altogether forgotten in the mtr-xiua ion of spending. An increase uft axu l/ion 1 is met with anything but smiius, bufc the pinch has nob k*n to tight as to lead the sovereign people to declare that they will spend lesa. The fact is each member says, " A thousand for my district won't be felt." But he forgets that he has to buy that thousand by allowing ninety others to get their thousand. If he considered that by going without his thousand the country mi^ht save ninety thousand he would be more considerate. For example, Mr Phabazyn in the Upper House is willing to give up his honorarium if all the others do the same, but he won't make one to do it —" What is a solitary #200?" .Ifov

some o£ those who wince nncl«r a prospective increase of tax timi propose to escape by having the exempti.. n o f £500 allowed in the Property Tax assessments either abolished altogether or cu t down to £100 Wat most £20). N o doiiht the taxable amount in the colony,would be enormously increased >>y that simple process, and its adoption has been ad-/ vocated in an uncompromising way by. the c Southland Times.' This journal holds limb there' is nothing of any force to bft said in favor of the exemption, and that any exemption is "purely arbitr ry. We venture to think differently. We don't say that it might not be reduced to, sny, £300, 'but against the dictum that it is purely arbitrary we think there is a cas-. It will be admitted that as a general thing all taxation is upon income. It is never the intention of a tax to reduce a man's capital, but on y to take a part of his profits. That being *o, can any rcasonab'e bein'j; contend that there should be no untaxfd minmum of income ? There is a minimum that is barely enough to keep body and soul together, a sum from which it would be tho blackest crime to deduct a penny. This minimum may, it is true, be very small, but there is such a minimum wherever there , is any outlay upon living. An average family of five would, including a^mall rent, find themselves very close to that minimum if, like Goldsmith's parson, they had £-10 a year — that is, about the product of £500 of capital. Could any such State as New Zealand send the tax collector to such a family as this to take a crust out of their mouths, while thousands had enough and to spare ? This is only by way of illustration. No doubt there are many widows and others with £400 or £500, upon which they live, and to take a penny from whom would be something approaching manslaughter. But we are not belying upon that. Our

illustration shows that there is some amount, whether in income or in capital, that represents the absolute necessities of civilized man in such a country as this. The principle of the exemption is that this amount shall be sacred in each case throughout the population. In other words luxuries must bear the burdens of the State, but life-blood, as represented in the minimum, must not be sucked out to pay for its own protection. Our sober contemporary has a turn for metaphysics and theology. "We hope that the point in the eternal fitness of things which we have been stating will not prove too fine for him, and be described as " purely arbitrary."

But there is another string to our bow. There are many professional men and officials living in houses that are not their own who have personal property to the extent of about £500. Nearly the whole of it paid a handsome toll afc the Custom House as it entered the colony, These persons, clergymen, lawyers, and doctors in a smaHHtsy, Government officers arid the like; also spend nearly the \yhple of their inconms ■hi :-•• -Itr-t^p'VnUt a?e v 'heavily %ixed by the Customs. Hundreds of such men with an income of, say, £300 pay more to Customs than many a land owner with an income of LIOOO. Tli2 latter saves most of his money ; the former spends ull of his in trying to be a gentleman. We do not commend him for this, we only say that by his spending he contributes handsomely to the State and renders the Property Tax unnecessary in his case.