AMERICAN TAXATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 189, 24 June 1862, Page 6

AMERICAN TAXATION.

" Surely, we have somewhere read something like this before?" must have been the feeling mentally expressed by most people who perused the other day that tremendous list which forms the substance of the " Kew Tax' Bill" now on its lingering was through the Congress nt Washington. And the impression is a perfectly true one— almost all of us have more than once before read something extremely like it, in a passage which, once read, is sure to dwell in the memory. This preflguration of the fiscal condition of America in 1862 was furnished by Sydney Smith, in 1820, in the guise of a description of the fiscal condition of Englishmen in the pre-reform era. Ofien as the passage has been quoted, it is so good in itself, and is so amazingly accurate in its description of what we now behold across the Atlantic, besides having been written specially for the warning nnd instruction of Cousin Jonathan, that we cannot be far wrong in quoting it once more :—" We can inform Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory:—Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under tho foot—taxes upon every thing which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste—taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion—taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth—on everything that come from abroad, or is grown at home—taxes on the raw material—taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man—taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health—on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal—on the poor man s salt, and , the rich man's spice-—on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride—at bed or board, couch or levant, we must pay. The schoolboy ■whips his taxed top—the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with n taxed bridle*- on a taxed road : and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 percent., into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent., flings himself back upon his chintz bed, which has paid 22 per cent. —and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gathered to,his fathers — to be taxed no more." This is an awful description; but it was true of this country forty years ago—of America it is more than half true at tnis moment, and in a few days or weeks it will convey not half the truth.

Keep in mind that, with exceptions absolutely insignificant, all articles imported into the States were more or less severely taxed even before the war began, and that the import duties have been more than once increased and extended during the contest. To nil this is now to be added, in form of this " New Tax Bill," a gigantic scheme of Excise—or rather of what in this country we now call -Inland Revenue, for it includes not only Excise duties 0:1 numerous articles, but; In-come-tax, Stamp duties, Licences, Legacy duties —taxes on everything tangible, from the most necessary food or clothing to the rarest luxury —taxes, too, on things as intangible as light and electricity." .As a matter of course and of right an American is to pay on all luxuries—on carriages, plate (including watches), on spirits, on ale, on tobacco. And on all amusements—on theatres, billiard-tables, circuses, bowling-alleys, and pianofortes. But he is to pay also and more severely, on his industry, and on all that is necessary to cover his outer or nourish his inner man. When he enters a business, he is to pay an annual license-duty—bankers, for instance, paying £20, arid even pedlars being liable to £4 a-year; on each transaction in that business (" all commercial transactions" is the phrase) he is to pay a stamp-duty; if he seeks to extend his business"by publicity, he is to pay a duty on his advertiss-. ments, besides his contribution to a paper-duty imposed on the sheet in which the taxed advertisement appears; if he seeks similar business ends by means of travelling, he i 3 to pay so much per mile if he go by steamer, and so much more if he go by rail, besides being mulcted in a similar sum if he even enter an omnibus; if he is so hurried that he has to send goods " by express," he is to pay for his impatience-, if he tries to obtain an advantage or repair an error by a telegraphic message, lie is to pay again; and on any income he may make out of his business after these deductions, he is to pay 3 per cent., which is only a fraction less than is paid on incomes by us poor plundered Britons, who pay on only a Very few of the other things which Mr. Secretary Chase is bringing within the sweep of his not. Then follow Cousin Jonathan from his counting-room to his dwelling house: his very bread is to be taxed, and his beef, mutton, and pork (along, of course, with his coflce, sugar, and tea), and his very salt; if he require a light to read his doubly taxed newspaper, he is taxed so much for using oil, and so much more if he prefer n candle, and a good deal in addition if he aspire to gas; the leather of his and his children's shoes, both "sole leather" ancl "upper leather," is to contribute to tbe State, and so is the blacking with which the uppers are to be polished ; his wife's parasol nnd piano, and his housemaid's broom, pail, and soap, are all "specified" with rigid impartiality ; nnd his sliirts and "pants" are already taxed to the uttermost, partly for the State, and more for "native industry.'' • Finally, when he dies, his savings or leavings arc to be taxed from 1 to 5 per cent, according to the dpgrees of relationship, which are just the rates exigible i 1 this less favored land.

Atone tremendous bound. Cousin .'Jonathan has gone far over the head of John Bull, as the best taxed man in the world. What this old, worn out country did not accomplish in less than a century, our incomparably more go-ahead relative has achieved in a year. There is another difference in the two cases ; we got into our pecuniary difficulties from having to fight with foreign enemies —Jonathan has got into his from having to fight with himself. '-'

~-, What will tlicsc taxes produce ?—what will be their influence on trade and industry ?—will it be possible to collect them ? are questions which I thrust themselves upon all who glance at Mr. Chase's "little bill." Odly enough, we search'the American speeches and newspapers through without finding any statement whatever as to what is expected to be the product of cither all or any of these multitudinous imposts. Our cousins either are or affect to be too eagerly absorbed in the banquet of war to be able to bestow a glance on the reckoning, which is already presented for settlement. The only attemut we have seen to bring out any probable result is in the shape of a naturally somewhat rueful statement by the New iorkTribune, to the effect that that patriotic organ will, under the new taxes, be doomed to the payment of 25,000 dollars, or £5000 sterling, per annum—a tact which goes a good way towards showing that, while the taxes on eating, drinking, dressing, and moving are very heavy, even "the taxes on knowledge" are something considerable. As to the crand total, however, all that can safely be said in the meantime is, that, however grand it may be, there is no likelihood of its being more than is wanted—the most splendid possible revenue is sure to fall short of the magnificence of the expenditure. The manner in which such taxes will affect the ongoings of trade and industry, is really not a question, put aplain fact. The effects wiU be in a high degree vexatious and pernicious, causing all manner, of impediments, and burdening the taxpayer without in anything like due proportion benefitting the Treasury. Thereisa fallacy in spreading - taxes over so many commodities—it looks equitable, but compared with the plan of heavier rates on fewer articles, it is not more equitable; but is incomparably more costly and burdensome to the whole cominuuity. The Americans are falling into the slough from which we began to emerge.in 1842. We had then 1200.enumerated articles liable to Customs duties—we have now only 24! We had ;then (in both cases reckoning Licences in slump) 8 Excise duties—we have now only 4. And no better _proof that we are on the right course, and the Americans consequently on the wrong, could be desired than- the fact that, though (with the unproductive exemption of home-made spirits) no duties nave been raised, but many -reduced, besides the hundreds 'abolished, our Revenue botyi from Customs and Exoise •is --now-• greater than ever. Before the war, the- Customs duties of the United States .were levied- on CO different' classes of goods, comprising nearly 500- enumerated articles, besides, many uneriumerated—in truth, the duty-free articles in 1860 did not exceed- 60, and these for the greater part ofthe most-trifling character; and that state of things has lately been made worse, and is now to be made worse still. To all that is to be added nearly fifty inland duties, all more or less of the nature of " excise," and levyable over the whole surface of the

country, and on all ranks and employments of the community. Another feature wherein the new fis-al system of America differs from auy known in this country, even in the worst of times, is in the duties being laid chiefly, not, as here, upon luxuries, but upon the most necessary articles of food, and the most common acts of industry. Tliere can be no need to argue that such a system. of taxation, whatever revenue it may yield in the result, will produce enormous annoyances and impediments in the process. Whether such a system can ever be really enforced in such a country would seem a question that would admit only of a negative answer, were it not that here is the system gravely proposed by those who ought to know best. The very smallness of the rates greatly increases the difficulty. For instance, the Paperduty (erroneously stated in the telegrams at 3 cents per lb.) is to be only 3-10ths of 1 cent per lb.—will it pay to have excisemen in every mill collecting such a tax as that 1 And yet some of the other taxes are surrouuded with still greater difficulties, not only as to the cost of collection, but as to the intermeddling and inquisitorial operations requisite for even their partial enforcement. It is hard to believe that such a system will ever get upon the statute-book —still harder to believe that any large proportion of its expected fruits will ever reach the Tre?sury.—Scotsman.