A POLITICAL CHAMELEON.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2714, 30 November 1881, Page 2

A POLITICAL CHAMELEON.

Mr Gibson’s Views on the Property Tax before hih Conversion by the “ Timaru Herald” and the Hall Party, as given by him at a Public Meeting held in the Mechanics Institute, on June 4, 1880.

(Timaru Herald, June 5,1880.) “ Mr Gibson said that the Property Tax was a tax upon all improvements. It would be destructive to trade and commerce, and it would be certain to prevent people! from improving their property to the extent they would otherwise do. A class who leceived incomes of from £3,000 to £4,000 a year would simply contribute nothing to this property tax, and therefore he thought that a land lax and an income tax were required. It had been said that evening that a land tax would fall more heavily upon the farmers, but he thought it would press as heavily upon tradesmen and the other inhabitants of towns, as the land in towns was of far greater value than that in the country, as an acre of land in a town might bo worth £IOOO, while a moderate sized farm would not be worth more than that sura, and the owner of the town acre therefore paid as much taxes as the farmer. It had been urged in favor of the property tax that by it the motgagee would be made to contribute to the revenue in proportion to the amount of capital he possessed, but he thought the meeting would agree with him when he said that the borrowers of money would have to pay a heavier interest for the money they borrowed. (Hear, hear.) Then again, it was asserted by the promoters of the tax that it was an equal tax. He maintained that it was nothing of the sort. Now, he would take as an example in support of what he said, two companies, each of which started operations with a capital of say £20,000, one only pays dividends at the rate of 4 per cent, while the other pays as much as 20 per cent. He would ask, was that equality ? As another instance of that he would mention that many of those present knew that some gold-mining companies paid as high as 50 per cent on the capital invested, while other goldmining companies paid nothing, and still they were taxed as heavily as the others. To him the principle appeared to be a most unjust one. He thought the meeting would endorse his statements when he said that they could fairly have a land tax imposed, if further taxation was required ; but in his opinion they did not stand so much in need of additional taxation as of retrenchment and economy on the part of the Government. (Hear, hear.) He did not think there had yet been a Government in the colony that had struggled for economy, and he was of opinion that the real masters of the position were the Under-Secretaries and Civil servants.”

ME J. S. GIBSON’S CONSISTENCY !

Mb Gibson’s Views on the Property Tax after nis Conversion by the “Timaru Herald” and the Hall Party, as given by him in his Address to the Electors of Timarh in the Theatre Royal, on Nov. 28,' 1881.

“ Taxation. —He was opposed to direct taxation, but if revenue was required he preferred a property tax to a land tax as the fairer of the two. (Applause and hisses). It was a curious circumstance that most candidates for country seats preferred a property tax, while most candidates for town seats preferred a land tax. He tried to look upon the question from a disinterested stand-point and the property tax seemed to him _ to be the fairest. He hoped no alteration would be made in the mode of taxation for some time, now that the machinery of the property tax had been got into good working order. The curse of the country was the continual alteration of its laws. The land tax machinery had been got ready at great expense and then the work was thrown away by repealing the law. If land were heavily taxed it would recoil upon the towns, (Oh! Oh!) because if the farmer did not do well the townspeople must suffer. A prosperous country meant a prosperous town.”