CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 52, 28 February 1873, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOB OF THE NELSON .EVEI^ING MAIL. '' ' ' ' ' ' ' • ■ £» Sir, — It appears certain enough that the reck-, ; less finance of the present Ministry has made new taxation unavoidable, and if we may trust the Southern Cross, a good enough authority as to the intentions of the Ministry, if as ; to. /nothing else, a Property and Income Tax is the form it will assume I see the Colonist intends to support the Income Tax, and to oppose the Property Tax. ■ Now sir, anything less fair ' than' an Tax in a colony like : ours, if unaccompanied by**a Property Tax, is inconceivable. I have a definite: income, out of which I have to support my wife and family as well as myself. It can be ; ascertrined by reference to. my employers. Many a' country farmer's money receipts are far below my ; income, but he feeds his family and himself off the produce of Ms farm before his money receiots' commence. In fact, his income 1 only begins to count, as income for taxation purposes, just -where mme 1 is more than half exhausted by butchers', bakers', and produce merchants 1 bills. A farmer, who gets £100 per annum cash, after paying for food; and: many luxuries— horsekeep for instance— 4s ; better off than a townsman, who receives £400 per annum, and has to pay for bread, meat, milk, eggs, and vegetables, and besides has to expend three times as much in dress as his country neighbors. . . . „■ r V -\ I hope you will lift up your voice against any such transparent injustice. ./. • „ " I am not sorry that direct taxation is upon us, People will begin' at last to force iheir represents-, tives to look at both sides of a shilling. They will object to Ministers spending thousands a year in carrying theme elves and their wives, children, . sisters, sisters-in-law, and, for all I know, grand- ' mothers' and cousins/ all over"the habitable globe by express trains and steamboats.; : They r will begin to question the 'expediency of! spending thousands, for which they ' Have" to pay ! the interest, in taking lines of railway from Nowhere to Nothing, merely for" the'- purpose of securing a vote. They will question the ad-j visability of sending home any member, who has voted for, the Ministry, at 30s a day with ex-; ' penses paid,' to" visit his frietids. under the name of an Emigration Agent., They ; will get . positively savage at the thought that* they are being taxed — j 10 per cent say on their income— £lo out of. ai. poor £100 to subsidise a press, ! to- corrupt ''a | public, and to keep in office -a Ministry to devour theirloaVesand fishiss. -Paterfamilias will^fefel very reyoiutionary^wh^n ' he> ' is ;asked tfrpKyJa tenth of liis income to'keep -in comfort^ 1 staff A>f| officials tea times too numerous,' because they-are ''■ For continuation of niws see f6urtWpag& }

the Irottiers, or cousins, or lickspittles of; -Ministers/ All" this discontent ii an unmixed: good, and will^weiniay hopei'lead to suctit.ai purification of our administration, as is more! important than mere pecuniary saving. \ Only, Sir, to produce the utmost good let the; tax be laid, not on the unfortunate salaried' . wretches alone, whose income is easily ascertain- j able, but, upon; those also who get money te worth! as "well as" money-out of : ,the \country. Besides reaching the salaried workers, and,the [ "jii*6duperßi''theße taxes. miisfc fcejskilfully irianagedj v to^hit/tion^r§sident^proprietors, who d 0,., no jgood ■ tji'tlie colony, its money out of it, and who' simply enter into other men's labor's. '/ '. „ . , „. The owners of .corner, sections in/ our towns, \ *who ! 'do' not /even fence ..them, but having; ; DOught 'Hfcheni. .for a .few™ shillings,, wait .until; "ottieir- nien's .sweat, and other men's enter-; .prise, : ha;s v ~made thenr .valuable, are" surely; meni ; to ; Mbe'' ' taxed/ heavily,; :;but /, they f wilij •get off' S eaßily- under a: Property and Income 1 -T?.-Ei :-Thje^ ; arejthe-men,. wJtQse;.calculated-inert- ', "ness dilutes the energy of hardworking men. No . man, say..higb. authorities, ought !.to derive profit; from the land, whose .property receives its enhanced value from the labor of others., Of course if the'lncbrne Tax be not. confined to thosei.eiy oy- ; ing'over £150 per annum at least, a large number of ' our mechanics and tradesmen will be taxed. For my part,. l should like to see Customs duties: abpjlßh.ed.rand a genuine Income Tax — taxing . produce consumed at home as income — supplant nil other taxation!. But this cannot be. Many capitalists take their thirty' per cent, by working small, loans. Will they be rated as receiving thirty per; cept.pn their cspital ? The same; with our merjchantß.;/;,Will,they naake; true., returns;? The "Bysbsny. is to tbrow ; taxation on the middle .class ■Tof ' iijco.mes, and on only; a part.pf ■ them.. . Yours, &c, •<■• - ' ■ ■.: ' ' '. ' x- /■ f P.S.— I"' hope honorable members will vote to pay Income Tax on their Honorariums, but I doubt it.