THE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5271, 14 February 1878, Page 3

THE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION.

‘ TO THE EDITOII OF THE .NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir —Would you permit me a few Hues to ask Sir George Grey to reconsider the incidence of taxation question ? Is it a fact tliat the Customs duties imposed upon the necessaries of life press in any way upon the working classes? These duties are in the first place paid by the importers, the importers charge an increased price to the shopkeepers, the shopkeepers charge an enhanced price to the consumers ; but in the same way the consumers recoup themselves by the prices which they demand for their productions or the rates of wages which they charge for their labor, the burden resting finally upon the property and produce of the colony. Further, would not Sir George Grey’s proposed transfer of taxation from imported goods to lauded property leave the matter just wh-re it is ? If taxation levied upon the articles m a grocer's shop means an increased price to consumers on tea aud sugar, pepper and pickles, then the same taxation levied upon land would mean an increased price to consumers of breal ami butter, beef aud potatoes, or it might mean lower rates of wages, which is practically the same thing. , That Irishman who found his blanket too short to cover his feet, and discovered a remedy in the simple plan of cutting a piece from the top and joining it on to the bottom, anticipated Sir George Grey ; so that Sir George’s proposed me# are has not even the merit of originality to counterbalance its disadvantages. Even the disadvantage of the seam in the case of the Irishman’s blanket Sir George Grey reproduces iu the double staff required to collect the taxes. . _ A One considerable advantage in Customs duties is that they tend directly to encourage manufacturing industry. If Sir George Grey strikes off 10 per cent, off imported boots aud shoes, then every one in Wellington engaged in making boots and shoes must either accept two shillings a day less wages than they have at present or he must abandon his trade. On the other hand, the disadvantage of Sir George Grey’s proposed land tax is that it directly tends to discourage the settlement of people upon the land, aud further, it would operate iu au iniquilously unfair manner—iu this way, suppose that a working man iu these late years of high wages ami constant employ meat, before Sir George Grey had arisen to deliver him, had managed to save £3OO, anil with that sum had bought 301) acres in the Kivvitea block. To clear his farm of bush he has had to borrow £2 per acre, and to fence it aud sow it with grass he has hail to borrow 30s. an acre aud £IOO to er-ct a house. He then fiuds himself the so-called owner of Inn 1 of tile value of £1750, and ou this Sir Gcoige Grey proposes to tax him", but of this snm he has borrowed and pays interest on £1450. £3OO is virtually all that is his own, and the fair enough tax of 5 per cent, upon annual value will, in the case of this man, be 30 per cent, upon the annual value of his actual property, and as the county or road board levy by present arrangements xvnodier 30 percent, upon him, the wonder is not that so few but that anyone should be- found s;> foolish as to settle upon laud in New Zealand. As a direct discouragement .Sir George Grey has already raised the price of Crown lands, yet if we are to credit his story the settlement of working men upon the land is the subject neatest hiheart What alone he aims at, and what lie is determined to secure is, that every working man and every working man’s child, and their children for ever, shall each have 500 acres cleared, fenced, sown with grass seed, and stocked witli sheep, every ewe of which shall annually drop four lambs and every wether two. I fear that the policy of Sir George Grey is to feed geese with “flapdoodle.”—l am,