THE COLONIAL TREASURER AND HIS PROPOSALS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 184, 3 September 1878, Page 4

THE COLONIAL TREASURER AND HIS PROPOSALS.

[?rom tbc "Tiaiaru Herald."] Mr Ballance'g Financial Statement undoubtedly crei'.OiJ a favorable impression in fho country et the time when it was delivered. The* a were severs! r^ngona why it e-iould do so. The resul's of laal year's operations wera highly satisfactory, calculate J iv feet, fo put everybody in good humor. Then there wag a clearness about the accounts, f:nd a simplicity in the halsccinj> of C3tiavtics of receipts and expen Htura which presented a favorable contrast fo the laborious muJdlss of former Budgefs. Than tho icha of the reduction of the tluiies on necessaries was a pleasant one, while that of n duly on land was not by any means depressing. Landowners were relieved at finding the duties fixed so low, and the reat of tba community were ooatented to escape tax-ilioa. "There is something not displeasing to ns," snys Rochefoucauld, "in tho misforlunsß even of oar dearest friends." The beer tax was not co popular, bat the iaapreeeion that is would not fall on ihe consumer, rendered it lees unpalateable than it would otherwise have been. The las oq Joint Stock Companies was approved of in proportion ns it was not understood, whita Ihe change from ad valorem to specific duties was billed as a toforra without its actual effect on (he taxpayer being at all carefully examined. Iv short, Mr Ballance acquired a reputation as a statesman an J a financier with a decree of ea3o and suddenness which must have astonished himself more than anybody else. We could not help chuckling when we read all the flattering praises to him iv the newspapers which habitually support the Government, saw hia Financial Statement trumpeted as the ablest that had ever been delivered, and learnt that it placed him at once in the foremo3t rank of colouial BUtesrnen ! Hia reputation, as wo have said, was suiden, but it was also very brief. He went up like a rocket, aud 13 fast comiug down like iho siiok. Thrf country has now ha! a fortnight to think over the details of the Bti'igH, and has already found out that thtre is Bo:hin£ in it. Cut bono ? is the qmstion that ia now on ov<?rybo iy'a hps. If the country is so prosperous, it the revenue is more than sufficient for all purposes, if all our iostituions«re woikinj-: so well, why iv the nuuv of com.non sense should wo t'oub'e ourseivesi hbout iroposiag new taxes, ivjnittin^ old ones, estublishinfj nn excise, bumpering trade, and «»ooerally disturbiuir thinsa t h «i t tiro just ns well let aloi)'3 ? Quicta non movere. Tlmi pfoplp, from t«kin<j this p-.asive view of matters, go en to enquire actively iato fhe particular merits or demerits of tho various changes pro- < po3e.i. The erquiry lends to mther discoraOling concluaiong, and makes it appear very questionable whether a ' little less "?tates'.r-.nuship" and a little more princiile woul ! not be an advantage. The fuEt thing that tho public hive discovered is that the budget ie very hard on colonial industries. This is probably not intentional on Mr Ballanct's paat, but is simply nn accidental result of a number of fiaaucial experiments inaae without any reference to one another. An ignorant apothecary micht mix up in a* bottle half a dozen different drugs and tinctures, having some vagua notion of what the effect of each would be, but not considering what the effect of them all together would be upon the unfortunate patient. This is exactly what Mr Balance has done in prescribing finance for tho colony. He h&% pat in a little beer tax and a little land tax with exemptions, and a little remiasion of Cuatoma duties, end a little income tax, and a little specific duties ; and he has shaken them all up together, and given them to his patient, assuring him that each ingredient is nice enough, and that anyhow the dose cannot do any harm, because is is ao "moderate." But he baa never thought of whether it will affect the whole system moderately, or whether it will operate in a concentrated form on one part of the syßtero. It ia no credit to a nauseous draft that it is too weak to give us a headache and spasms, i if it is strong enough in its general effect to give us a stomachache. We admit that each part of the finance is moderate, milk and watery, feeble, wishy-washy. But taken as a whole, in respect of its direct bearing on colonial industries, it is a very stiff dose indeed. No wonder the farmers and others similarly situated are making wry faces now that they come to reflect on the real mean'me of it. The land tax undoubtedly falls most heavily ou the agricultural community. The dwellers in towns, having invested most of their capital in improvements, Buch f.s buildings, stock-in-trade, pLni, or what not, for the most port escape it; but the farmer, whose land is almost his sole capital, has to pay with n vengeance. He has given ihe highest price for his land, and perhaps has had to borrow at high rates in order to find the money. The improvements are a mere bagatelle. He is taxed, therefore, on the whole of his possessions, and even in many cases on a great deal which he does not really possess yet. He gains next to nothing by the reduction of the tea and sugar duties, because be buys by retail such small quantities of those articles as he consumes. The great tquatter, baying his sugar by the half ton, and his tea by the chest, will get the full advantage of the reduction; bat tbe farmer will not save ten BailJiogg a yew by it, The beer tax, oa

tho other hand, will fall heavily upon him, because, in harvest time, if not in his household, he will buy beer in large enough quantities to pn&ble the brewer to charge him with the duty. It will injure him in another v?ay a'3o by diminishing the manufacture of beer in the colony, nnd thus spoiling the market for barley. The change from ad valorem to specific duties will punish him severely, because, as is shown by mftuy coucuirent coosparisone, the now duties represent a larya increase in the rate of duty on. boo' 3, particularly men's bis»hlow9, and all descriptions used by the working clashes. List, but not least, tbe remission of the duty on cereals end breadstuff^ will deprive him of the one solitary little bit of protection which he has hitherto enjoyed ; and that at a lime when the price of corn ia alarmingly low, and when bis best hope of making a profit lay in the ability of colonial millers to compete successfully with importers of foreign flour. Each of these blows h lijhfc by itself, so " moderate," ia fiet, a3 not to amount to more than a geutle tßp; but taken all together, they will resu'.t in a knock on the hesd which will make many a struggling farmer stagger. But Mr Ballauce is a statesman, not a man of bußiaese, and tho " wages class " are hia peculiar peta. Our own opinion and that of a good many others, ia that his statesmanship is nil moonshine, and that he knows no more what the effect of his proposals on the people will be, than Ghoilah, if there is such a psrsoD, dona of his " Great ladian Cures."