ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, July 28, 1845.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 43, 2 August 1845, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, July 28, 1845.

Sin,— rln reference to your article of last Saturday upon the subject of taxation, allow me to call your attention to the following extract from Adam Smith, which you appear to have overlooked : — " All the different civil establishments in North Ame- ' rica in short, exclusive of those of Maryland and North

' Carolina, of which no account has been got, did not ' before the commencement of the present disturbances* ' cost the inhabitants above £64,700 a-year; an ever 1 memorable example at how small an expense three ' millions of people may be not only governed, but well ' governed." As indirectly connected with the same subject, will you also insert the following extract from Archbishop Whately's Lectures on Political Economy : — " Most exchanges are of this character, voluntary; ' but the case of taxation, — the revenue levied from the 1 subject in return for the protection afforded by the so- ' vereign, constitutes a remarkable exception ; the pay- ' ment being compulsory, and not adjusted by agreement 1 with the payer. Still, whether in any case it can be 1 fairly waft, reasonably adjusted, of the contrary, it is ' not the less an exchange. And it is worth remarking, ' that it is just so far forth as it is an exchange, — so far ' forth as protection, whether adequate or not, is afford1 ed in exchange forthis payment, — that the payment 1 itself comes under the cognizance of this science. ' There is nothing else that distinguishes taxation from 1 avowed robbing." The Italics are Archbishop Whately's. Your readers will make the proper application of the extract. 1 am, Sir, A Constant Reader. 1 * This was written in 1775.

Heki a Coachman. — We have a new light thrown on Heki's previous career. It wqtfld appear he has not forgotten his old vocation, for he evidently has got the whip-hand of the Governor. " We have been infoimed that Heki has once during his lifetime visited England, and that previous to that event, he had been for some time coachman to the late Rev. Samuel Marsden, of Parramatta." — Sydney Australian.