THE GOLDFIELDS MEMBERS ON THE GOLD DUTY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 250, 19 December 1873, Page 4

THE GOLDFIELDS MEMBERS ON THE GOLD DUTY.

Mr. Pyke, in moving the motion standi tog in his name, was exceedingly sorry that a motion of such importance should have been postponed, by the embarrassments of the Government, until the last day of the session, and should have much preferred there being a fuller House, to enter into a question so deeply affecting a very large and important portion of the population of the Colony. However, he would submit to Fate, and briefly give his reasons for going into a subject which in another shape, was largely debated at the commencement of the session, His motion ran thus:-«~" That, as a matter of equity and justice, the gold export duty should be abolished, but, as a matter of expediency, such abolition should be by an annual reductiun of 4d. per ounce, to take effect from I st January, 1874." He had put it into these words because a number of members had admitted that, as a mat*tor of equity and justice, the gold duty ought'to be abolished, although they could not agree to the position that it should be immediately reduced by 6d. an ounce; and all he desired now was to obtain an affirmation of the principle, go that the question might be dealt with upon that principle in a future session, He was quite willing to omit the words » 4d. per ounce, to take effect from Ist January, 1874." and leave it in the hands of the powers that be to fix the time when and the manner in which the reduction should take place. When he formerly addressed the House on the subject, which was at a time when he had just taken his seat in the House, he took ft view of the matter which he had Bince reason to see was a somewhat rash one,- It did not then oc* cur to him that it would be so extremely inconvenient to many Provinces if they wore suddenly deprived of this item of revenue It was only just that those Provinces which so largely depended upon it should have time to impose some other taxation in lieu of it. When he found honorable members from Auckland, West* land, and Nelson were willing to agree to a gradual reduction, although insisting upon the necessities of their Provinces as an obstacle to immediate reduction, bethought It was only right that such a proposition as that which he now made should be agreed to. In dealing with this matter, he desired to call attention to one or two points, The principle of equality oftax-r ation was now VBoogrii?ed as aoUnd by all political economists, It was thus laid down by Adam Smith, in '* The Wealth of Nations"',-=*>'* The subjects of every State ought to contribute towards the sup= port of the Government as nearly as possU • Me in proportion to their several abilities ; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protect tion of the State " That in other words, taxation should be levied at an equal ratu of percentage on nil classes alke. But Pentham and Mijl. and modern thinkers, who concur with this principle, objeot to the definition. It is rlgfitly'held that the poor man's payment, being a deduction | from the ncofss'irios of life, is n greater I snr-rifiqe than the rich man's payment from onmfnvt and luxuries. Taxation to

be equal, should therefore decrease, pro rata, as the amount of the taxpayer's in* come diminished, until at a point where all his income was required for the pmv chase of mere necessaries, taxation should altogether cease. Regarded from this point of view, the operation of the gold duty was most unequal, because the percentage of taxation was the same on the large and on the small producer, and it was felt most by the men who obtained the least gold. The rich claim-holders could well afford to pay this tax, but they were very few indeed in number, The majority of the miners, he said positively, obtained a bare living. Statistics which had been laid on the table showed that in I 1872 the total value of the gold exported from "New Zealand was $1,731,261, and that the miners during the same year a matter of arithmetic to find that the average of the earnings of the whole body was £77 10s, per annum, or less than 80s* per week. It must be obvious that a large portion of the miners did not earn a bare living, and it was upon their behalf he asked that this impost should be re= moved, He should be justified in saying that this export duty was the most clumsy mode of taxation that was ever conceived. He knew it was brought from Victoria, but there it was originally adopted as a substitute for the obnoxious license fee, which was collected absolutely and literally at the point of the bayonet, with handcuff and chain accompaniments. It was now abolished, because there was no longer any necessity for retaining it, and the same thing should follow here. Perhaps he might b@ told that this was an Australian notion. He was charged the other day with being an Australian. Well, he was not ashamed of being an Australian, and when he looked round the House, and found one-fifth of the members, and nearly half of the Ministry of the day, were Australians, he ought nofc to be ashamed of his company. If they adopted the tax because Victoria had done so, they should also follow its example, and reduce the taxation no longer necessary. He thought the fertile brain of their ingenious Trea* surer might devise a better means of rais» ing revenue than a tax which fell heaviest upon' those who were least able to bear it. Bonuses were offered for native manufactures—tor the production of iron, the manufacture of bottles, and goodness knows what; and he wished to know why the production of iron should be encouraged and the production of gold punished, for that was what it amounted to. He might be told it was not a tax, but a royalty. It was not a royalty, because a miner's right conferred upon the holder the power to possess himself of any gold he might discover on Crown land; and, in that way, irrespective altogether of the gold duty, the miners of this country furnished a Goldfields revenue during 1872 of not less than $61,000, which he thought was a very fair payment for the small quantity of land disturbed by them. They were also charged* with a duty of $53,000, making a total of $114,000 of taxation, or about ss, per ounce, from the producers of the metal which had made this country what it now was. For miners' rights, registration fees, and leases alone, £82,858 was collected during 1872, He considered that the handsome sum of $61,000 was quite a sufficient contribution from the miners, without the additional $53,000 raised through the Customs. That the duty was not a royalty was further evi- j denoed by the fact that if the gold was used in the Colony for manufactures no duty was paid thereon, although the buyers carefully deducted the amount of duty from the producer. He would ask honorable members to recollect the effect which the discovery of gold had upon the Colony, and that it had raised a cluster of small and struggling settlements to the dignity of a young nation. He was quite willing to acknowledge the value of the wool industry, and to acoord all praise to its pioneers • but even they would not have been in so good a position if it had not been for ' the labors of the miners, who were so heavily and unjustly taxed, He would not delay the House any longer, but would merely point out that, in consenting to accept an annual reduction of this export duty, he regarded it simply as an instalment of justice to an industrious class, and as such, be asked the Government to accept it, and the Government to yield to that which mugt come sooner or later, whether they liked it or not. It was very probable that he would be told that this was cry • but that was a kind of attack which he cared nothing for, because no measure of reform had yet been carried without a cry for its adoption having preceded it, He asked the House to consent to the repeal of this obnoxious impost, which was unjust and oppressive to so large a proportion of the producing olaas of the country. Motion made and question " That, as a matter of equity and justice, the gold export duty should'be. abolished, but, as a matter of expediency, suoh abo=lition should be by an annual reduction of id, per ounce.''

"You are more than half blue," as the humming bird observed to the violet." " I have a drop in my eye," the viol§t re=, plied. Why is Louis Napoleon like a retired Vauxhall cook he thinks upon Ham, and remembers when he cut it.