South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2423, 22 December 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1880.

Ix a recent issue we expressed the opinion . that the foremost question which the electors of New Zealand would be called upon to consider at the ensuing general election, would be the question of taxation. Wc pointed out that a heavy load of taxation, from which there is no possible escape, is impending, and that the ease or suffering which it must entail must depend very much on the way in which the taxation harness is adjusted to the shoulders of the people. We also submitted a variety of taxes from which the selection will probably have to be made, and wc suggested the advisability of having the merits of each well discussed, so that some definite system, which would not be liable to periodical alteration might be decided upon. That the existing system of taxation will have to be modilied, if not entirely revolutionised, is self apparent. The Customs duties have already encroached seriously on the common comforts of life, and they cannot be increased with any prospect of assisting the revenue. It is true that (be tea and sugar duties might bo re-imposed, but the elVect would simply be to diminish the spending power of the population in other directions, and the advantages to the revenue would be very problematical. The property tax lias been universally condemned as inquisitorial, unjust, costly to collect, and both lame and impotent. In does not touch the absentee landlord or foreign bondholder; it discourages enterprise, and it is a particular drawback to the manufacturer. The effect of this tax on the industrial community lias been to bring about a state of prostration such as Now Zealand lias not felt for a decade. The patient lias been bled almost to death at a time when be required nourishment to pull him through.

In re-arranging the incidence of taxation, one of the first things to engage attention will be the Customs tariff. Free-trade and protection may very well be left aside, seeing that the financial necessities of the situation are such as to effectually preclude anything like free-trade being indulged in. Hut

although Customs duties must be imposed for revenue purposes it is desirable that the question whether they cannot be imposed in such a way as to encourage young industries for which the colony is specially adapted, should have consideration. Bonuses arc, after all, but a clumsy, unnatural, and artificial method of stimulating the industries of a young country into life. They operate something like chicken-batching by steam when the brood is warmed into life only to be allowed to perish from hunger. To many it will occur that a discriminative tariff, which, while very properly handicapping articles that compete with the colonial artizan would exempt rawproducts and machinery that the country is incapable at present of producing, would offer a much greater stimulus to native industry than any bonuses that the State can afford to give away. But direct taxation is necessary, and for the property tax there must ho an efficient substitute. Shall this be a land tax or an income tax or a combination of both ? If a land tax will it take the form of an acreage tax or a tax according to valuation ? An income tax has the recommendation of being fair and equitable, and it cannot bo called a class tax. A land tax has also the recommendation that it can be exercised in such away as to promote settlement, and, by discouraging the locking up of large areas in a few bands, advancing the general prosperity. No doubt “ the greatest good for the greatest number’’

will bo freely urged as a wise maxim, but the minority simply because the}- happen to be a minority must not bo subjected to gross injustice. The taxation problem is a difficult onc,Jand it requires very careful consideration. As the electors arc likely to have a variety of schemes put before them, it will be as well, if they take time by the forelock, and exercise the right of private judgment, so that when brought face to face with the ballot box they may be able to record a verdict which will not afterwards form a matter for severe regret.