South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2184, 18 March 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1880.

The five million loan has been negociated and nearly all expended, the Ministry have been afforded the opportunity of giving practical effect to their promises about economising the working expenditure of the Government, an abundant harvest has been gathered, in short, all the blessings that Providence and human ingenuity combined can bring about have been conferred on New Zealand, and yet we are far from prosperous. Trade and commerce wore never more languishing, business people have seldom been reduced to greater straits, the unemployed have never been more numerous or loud in their complaints, and the political outlook has probably never been more dismal than at this moment. Money has been poured into the colony, taxation has been vigorous!}' applied as a spur to enterprise, yet there are no signs of revival. The Colonial Treasurer’s anticipations as to the deficit of nearly a million of money at the end of the financial year will bo more than realised. Major Atkinson was derided for his gloomy anticipations, hut ho has proved a true prophet of evil. His opponents, when they treated his predictions with scorn, had but a meagre perception of the damaging influence which the taxation proposals of the Government would have on the trade and commerce of New Zealand. Conversant although they arc expected to bo with the elementary principles of political economy, they seemed unable to perceive that the Colonial Treasurer no sooner gave utterance to these predictions than be took the best possible means that could bo taken to ensure their verification. We protested agaiust his now taxation proposals at the time as being calculated to kill enterprise, to drive capital out of the country, and to prostrate its industrial energies; and we submitted that what the colony required to relieve it from the financial depression from which it was then suffering, was something very different from a crushing scheme of additional taxation. Trade, we submitted, wanted nourishment, industry needed encouragement ; the resources of the colony were powerful but they required to be developed by the application of capital. But instead of strengthening the Colony and its industrial interests at a critical juncture, a system of taxation of an odiously oppressive character was devised, and passed into law, and Now Zealand and her industries hare been suffering ever since. How long this condition of things is going to continue the people of New Zealand must determine. It is useless, even supposing new loans were available to keep piling up the public debt higher and higher, and discouraging at the same time the introduction of private capital. The position of New Zealand among the Colonics of Australasia is far from enviable. She has the notoriety of being far and away the most deeply indebted of the group. In proportion to her population her taxation is something enormous. A million and a half annually in payment of interest on loans—money for which there is no return whatever, is something serious. The voice of the unemployed in New Zealand, at a time when our harvest fields should be soliciting labour, is stronger than any similar cry that is heard in any of the surrounding colonics. These are all facts that must tend to our disadvantage. Their direct effect must be to keep capital out of the colony. A country that has the reputation of being overtaxed, and ot having a population suffering perodically from want of employment, or depending largely on Government works, fed from foreign loans, is not an attractive field for inyestment. This is the picture that New Zealand presents in the eyes of outsiders.

Can an improvement be effected, and how ? This is an important questionin fact it is the question of questions for the people and their representatives. We believe good legislation can do as much to mend our prospects as bad legislation has done to damage them. It is no use turning a supercilious and deaf car to the cry of distress, and telling the unemployed that they must work for the bare necessaries of life or starve. The laborers of Isew Zealand now out of employment have a right to look for something better than the benevolence that is extended to paupers and prisoners. That they should be compelled to memoralisc the Government for employment shows that there is something radically wrong in the management of the colony. Ihcrc is plenty of land to be tilled, mines to bo worked, manufactories to be established, and there ought to be work enough for ten times the pojnilation that jNbw Zealand now carries. But these things need capital, and the legislature by recklessly increasing the customs tariff,

and imposing a levelling and crushing tax on property, has taken a most effective method of locking up capital against investment. The Customs duties have increased the cost of living to such an extent that labor must either receive a high price, or else it must starve. Hence the capitalist finds himself handicapped in his efforts to develops new fields of productiveness and wealth. Thus it comes that mines which ought to be remunerative arc neglected, that fields are untilled, and that so little machinery for manufacturing purposes finds its way to the colony. The present financial year has properly been termed the year of taxation. It has undoubtedly been a year of gloom and depression. If an improvement is to be effected, there is only, we submit, one means by which it can be brought about. The screw of taxation must be reversed. Commerce must be relieved of the chains that arc now weighing it down. The Customs Tariff must undergo a material change. The cost of living must be cheapened so that that the consumer will be able to pay the retailer ready cash, and the retailer and wholesale merchant enabled to meet their obligations without the assistance of the bankruptcy laws. We are aware that a land tax, however justifiable or politic is repugnant to many—but let an income tax be substituted in place of the multitude of existing {axes that are stilling all enterprise, and the trade, commerce and industry of New Zealand will undergo an immediate and wonderful revival.