ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, 19th March, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 485, 27 March 1850, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, 19th March, 1850.

Sir— A case recently decided in the Police Court here, in which a very respectable firm was the defendant, has drawn considerable attention to the subject of Customs, as to the mode in which they are levied as also to the manner in which the funds so derived are,ap-

plied. I think, and lam sure lam not singular in so thinking, that the conductors of the Press in this place would be more seriously consulting the interests of the inhabitants if, instead of occupying their columns with mutual abuse and attacks upon the "Company (a very stale subject), they would* turn, their attention to the one above alluded to, being ofvitaHmportance both to the merchant and consumer. It is a fact notorious to every trader, and even to the officers of the Customs, that no single entry since the imposition of the ad valorem duty has been passed with strict accuracy. Now if it is a crime to pass goods at one-tenth their their value is it not one also to pass them at one half, where is the difference in the offence ? If I am brought before a Magistrate for picking your pocket it would make no difference whether I had stolen one shilling or five; does not this show the utter absurdity of a system which compels Custom House officers to wink at the lesser and to prosecute the greater fraud. Does any one hear of Spirits being entered below the fixed rate? Why not adopt, if a revenuVmust be raised, a fixed rate upon every article, th» weights or quantities of which can be easily arrived at, and allow all other goods, particularly those of British manufacture to pass free, a very slight increase in the duties oh spirits, beer, wine, and tobacco, all very proper subjects for taxation, would keep the revenue at its present rate if to this increase was added * moderate fixed duty on flour, sugar, coffee, rice,; tea, and all goods which could without inconvenience he weighed at the wharfs, I doubt much if the balance would not be considerably in the favour of her Majesty. I would not wish you to imagine however, that such an exorbitant amount of taxation ought in my opinion to be levied on this place, I merely (if perforce I under the dictatorship of Governors we mutt pay for the support of their relations and proteges) suggest a milder method of applying the screw to those who have hitherto been under the foolish impression that no Englishman could be taxed without his own consent. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, X.