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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5818, 21 November 1879, Page 2

The Financial Statement, with its pro'posea taxation, nas been ©ailed » willblooded one. It has been said that it is a tax upon the comforts of life. Now, seeing that all incomes are exempt from taxation, as well as realised property to the extent of £3OO after all just debts have been deducted, it appears to _us that the proposed scheme of taxation is a most liberal one, as far as the less wealthy classes of the community are concerned. It would be more in accordance with fact if the proposed taxation were called a check upon the extravagancies rather than a burden upon the comforts of life. Is it not a fact that we are now taxing ourselves unnecessarily, and even injuriously, to an enormous extent by the abuse of alcoholic drinks and its results 1 We are spending our earnings in buying that which we should do better without, except to a very small extent ; and are also spending large sums of money and much equally valuable time in trying to control and check the evils produced by this very extravagance. Then as to dress. The extravagance here is not only wasteful, but positively injurious in its tendency. If increased taxation upon articles which do not interfere with the real pecessities and real comforts of life will lessen the present extravagance of the country in dress and drink, then such taxation will not only help to make our public expenditure and income meet, but it will protect us against ourselves, and probably lead ua to a more thoughtful and profitable use of the money we earn. Why is it that there is so much distress, when the slightest check occurs in our commercial affairs ? Is it not in great part owing to the fact that too many are living up to their income, and some even beyond it? Too many think of an income in prosperous times as though it were an assured interest upon capital. Thinking men, who knew the state of the country, were convinced that a commercial crisis was imminent, irrespective of such a disaster as the failure of the Glasgow Bank and its direct results. Land was being bought at excessive prices, and with borrowed money, while extravagance in living and great outward display was the order of the day. Such a state of things only needed a slight check to cause confusion in the affairs of the community. The land purchases of* the past eighteen months have been made to a large extent with borrowed money. Their extent was largely due to the purchase of pre-emptive rights by the Canterbury people, and it is probable that the Government land sales for some time to come will be small, as many persona who have purchased land with borrowed capital, will have their energies and purses severely taxed for some time to come, while others of them will have to put laud in the market, which they will be unable to hold. If the proposed direct and indirect taxation should open the eyes of all classes of the community to the extravagance and recklessness which exists among us, then, if imposed, it will prove a blessing in disguise, and preserve us from greater ills in the future. We would again draw attention to some important remarks, which apply equally to both excessive public and private expenditure, made by Mr. Gladstone in 1861 when laying his Financial Statement before the House of Commons—“l am deeply convinced that “ all excess in the public expenditure, “beyond the legitimate wants of the ‘ ‘ country, is not only a pecuniary waste—- “ for that, although an important, is yet “ a comparatively trifling matter—but a “ great political, and above all a great “ moral evil. It is a characteristic, sir, <c of the mischiefs which arise from “ financial prodigality, that they creep “ onwards with a noiseless and stealthy “ step ; that they commonly remain un- “ seen and unfelt until they have reached “ a magnitude absolutely overwhelming ; “ and then at length we see them such “ and so great, so fearful and menacing in ‘ ‘ their aspect, and so large in their “ dimensions that they seem to threaten “ the very foundations of national “ existence.”