THE PROPERTY TAX.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 138, 10 June 1880, Page 2

THE PROPERTY TAX.

To the Editoe 6v the "Evening Mail." Sir— Allow me to suggest that in agitating against the Property Tax people should bear in mind that it is in one respect a step in the right direction, inasmuch as it acknowledges the principle of direct taxation, and that •people should contribute to the revenue according to their means, and not according to their necessities. If the property tax is as bad as the worst that people are saying of it, it is not half so bad as raising the revenue, as it is now raised, by taxes on commodities consumed by the masses of the people, the wealthy, in many cases not contributing so much as some of the poor with large families. I believe an income tax is the fright thing, and that the property tax will eventually lead to it. Ono good feature of both taxes is that 'the exemption clause relieves the laboring man, the poor settler, clerks with low salaries, and others in the lower ranks of life from the impending pressure of increased taxation, and puts this burden entirely on the shoulders of those better able to bear it. That increased taxation should have become bo imperatively necessary, aud that there should be so much distress prevailing, is a sad comment on the public works policy we have heard so much vain boasting about. — I am, &c., J. G.