THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 89

THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE.

SPEECH AT FEILDING. l FEILDING, August 6. The Hon. Dr Findlay addressed a large meeting heTe to-night. The Mayor (Mr J. B. Trewin) presided. The Attorney-general, in his speech, recast, so far as statistics were concerned, the speeches he had made in other places —notably at Timaru and Dunedin— and brought 'them up to date. Ref erring to taxation, he said he understood that the subject was not more palatable than having a tooth drawn, but since taxation was inevitable, it was well that it should receive close attention. He developed this portion of his speech into two principal classes — necessary State services for development of the country and the promotion of the material welfare of special classes in the community. The first included the maintenance of a system of justice, and for the second taxation should be left, at least to an extent, to private property, which benefited most by such expenditure. In the first case it was not a toll to the State for production, but a return to th« State' of come portion of the Avealth which pubKc expenditure had increased in private hands. It was from such consideration that the new theory of taxation had arisen, and it was., in fact, adopted by the British Government. The new theory was that the taxpayer should contribute to the necessities of the revenue to the State in some proportion to the extent of such enhanced value of property The speaker said we had heard much against the State borrowing, and he admitted the virtue of self-reliance, but supposing the 27 millions borrowed during the past 18 years had. been Taissd by taxation in New Zealand, upon whom should the taxation have fallen? Upon the whole population, including 800,0C0 or 900,000 people, who had no land, or upon those whose wealth was largely increased by the proceed* of such taxa- .. on ? But they were told that the money requisite could be obtained for development without further taxation by more economy in administration. Unless sacrifices were made in the public services, he believed, that further reductions than those already contemplated were impossible. Trie Government could get more revenue through the railways, certainly, but only by increasing rates, and th*at increase ' must be paid mainly by those whom the Opposition party claimed' to represent. The Minister then answered some criticisms of Mr Massey regarding taxation, and claimed that Mr Massey had made a blunder in referring to his address at Timaru when he said, " The great mass of our people Were paying less taxation than formerly — that is. of course, the majority of out population have had the rate taxation reduced." This, Mr Massey denied. Dr Findlay said : — " You must first look at what is taxed, and what class purchases or consumes it ; second, on the rate oi taxation, and what class pays it. Out total number of direct taxpayers does not exceed 41,000, and the direct taxation increased in the last 10 years from £703,267 to £1,460,299. This increase has' not been due to any increase in rates, but to an enormous increase in the private wealth of the Dominion, which wealth is estimated to have increased since 1891 by not less than 250 millions." His main proposition was that during the last 10 years the taxation in this country had been reduced by at least 25 per cent, upon the mass of the people, and that the increase shown in the product of our taxation had been due mainly to indirect taxation. The cost of living had increased chiefly because of an increase in the prices of meat, bread, poultry, potatoes, eggs, and similai articles of food, for which taxation was not responsible, and it certainly could no 4 be said that the Liberal Government had placed upjn the mass of the people during the past 10 years an increased burder of taxation. Mr Massey clung to the won: old fiction of the wealth}- class that i: you take from the wealthy by taxatior ! or otherwise you neceasaniy reduce th< ■ fund they devote to wages, and so the ' worker suffers. If Mr Massey would onlj bring his political economy up-to-date who knoAS but that he might then agree with the speaker's views of taxation? Di ' Findlay devoted some attention to th< I closer settlement of lands. Re remarkec that it waa curious how the politico* heresies of one decade became the ac , cepted creed of the next. Even the Op position had accepted the policy of th< resumption of private land for close settlement. It was not the past but th< future that concerned them. Mor< must be done to put the peopli on the land, and that should be ih< j aim of the Government. Large e.siatei I were still the chief abstacle ti closer s-ettlement d-efcpite the fac that six millions had been spent in buy , ing; estates, and the Government had im poh-ed the giaduated. land tax to hxiuce if not to iorce, subdivision. Mr Masee; had a great liking for Denmark, yet hoy 1 did Denmark effect a remarkable c-,uh divicion of estates? By the pio^resMv laml tax — ihat horrible and Socialisti graduated tax li a lian-e hel-d on-a larg tstats the tax was applied, if two th. tax was much greater, and so unti it grew almost to confiscation, becau:the object of the Danes was to .sett!' people on the land. It was Mr ila.--.e; who rejoiced in the Danish srucceea, ar.< who saw no Socialism in the Dan.;-] methods of subdivision, and would li not then adopt the same means t similarly subdivide the great estate n New Zealand. That seemed like a quolion of an electioneei iny campaign, an: would probably be answered in an elcc tion-eering way. Denmark ma a splendi< object ta'a-cn, and we were prepa-ied t copy her methods. Our gi^'luat-ed la.n< tax was promoting subdivision, mid w rau.-L still do more voluntarily piivate sub division. Summing up, the speaker Paid that i the Special Settlement Finance Bill of la? year had parsed into law, the Govern

ment would say to the landless, " Look around you. If* you can get a large owner J to sell an estate suitable for closer settlement at a reasonable price the State will guarantee to find the whole purchase money, and will give you the fee simple of your selection."