Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1908. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9092, 11 March 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1908. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE pile of heavy statistics which Sir Joseph Ward“carries about with him is enough to explain the sticking up of the motor in which he travels on even better roads than those in the north of Auckland. At Papakura the other evening the Prime Minister reeled off his accustomed supply of figures which serve to some extent to mystify his hearers and to amaze the more ignorant by the splendid results alleged to have been obtained. Sir Joseph Ward boldly asserted that the people of New Zealand are not heavily taxed because the average wealth per head in this country is the highest’in the world. According to the great optimist the average possessions of every man, woman and child, in the Dominion are valued at £347, which in other words means that every family of man, wife and two children should on the average possess assets wcrthhibout £I4OO. Wo have no hesitation in asserting that the majority of our readers could not realise this amount if their property was sold up or in stating that fourfifths of the population are in similar

case. But taxation by means of customs makes no distinction of persons and even the poorest have to pay on almost every, purchase they make. To these Sir Joseph’s cheerful view of the average wealth per head offers little consolation and it may be suggested to them that our heavy customs duties greatly assist in increasing the cost of living. The Government collects nearly £4 los per head in taxation from our population, and afterwards local bodies demand one and a quarter millions from those who have any rateable property. It is a curious fact that the Year Book which, till a few years ago, used to give a statement of the taxation per head in the Australian States for comparison with that in New Zealand,~ has omitted this table in recent issues~as it was hardly favourable to the Dominion. The last Year Book after recording the average taxation per head for 1907, which, needless to say, is higher than ever before, adds the following note “It may bo well to call attention to the fact that a full yield of taxation per bead of population may indicate (outside the question of increasing the rate of any particular tax levied) a satisfactory condition of business, as showing activity.’’ In simpler language, the more that is taken out of people’s pockets in the way of taxation the more prosperous they are. Such is theory of our present Ministers.

AS we read of the numerous demands that are being made on all sides by workers for a share in the profits alleged to be made by employers, we cannot but wonder that the unionists leaders instead of advocating theoretical resolutions that the estate should do this, that and the other, do not devote their energies to enabling the workers to obtain the whole of the profits in various industries for themselves. Why, for example, does not the Coal Miners’ Union, instead of battling constantly for shorter hours and bettor pay, start a mine of its own where conditions really favourable to the workers would prevail? The lack of capital may bo urged as an objection but this could easily be overcome if the workers were in earnest. Numerous co-operative societies have been begun in England, by men who were far worse off than the workers in New Zealand, and in this country settlers have found little difficulty in obtaining accommodation from banks, for the purpose of setting up dairy factories. Flaxiuilliug would be perhaps even more suitable for co-operative enterprise than mining, but the tendency of the labour leaders is to discourage any form of self help, which might raise some of their present followers into positions of comparative affluence, because they realise that once a man has any stake in the country, he becomes a far less ready tool, and much less anxious to risk revolutionary changes, than when he spends his monej as soon as it is received and has no provision made for the future.