TAXATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 190, 9 February 1912, Page 4

TAXATION.

We hear a good deal, especially at election times, about the taxation in this country and how it oppresses the people and crushes enterprise, and all the rest of it, but to appreciate our true position in this respect it is only necessary to make comparisons with some of the other countries that are frequently held up to us as bright examples of good government, of unfettered enterprise, etc. Take the Argentine, a place we have heard quite a lot of lately. There, truly enough, private eiiterprise gets the widest scope. According to the correspondent of the Auckland Herald, the railways are mostly foreign-owned; the very ports (with the exception of Buenos Aires and La Plata) are owned by foreign capitalists, and they levy a toll on every bushel of grain that,goes out of the country. The water supply of the cities (except the city of Buenos Aires), the drainage, the lighting, the tramways, the telephones, and very many of the telegraphs are all in private hands, and as a result the public are almost as badly served as it is possible to be, while the cost of each, in proportion to the services rendered, makes Argentina one of the dearest countries on earth to live in. Wages are steadily falling, while rents are going up in an alarming manner, and it looks very much as if a crisis could not be longer delayed. The system of taxation, national, provincial and municipal, plus the heavy tariffs for all services (which are in New Zealand looked upon as public services) are steadily but surely bringing about an economic position that will have a serious effect on

the commercial and labor section of the community. A Bill is before the House there to alter the system of taxation. To-day the system in vogue is to tax every article of food and clothing, whether it comes from foreign countries or from the Argentine provinces. The city of Buenos Aires collects a tax'on every side of bacon or dozen of eggs that comes in from the outside provinces. The governing group evidently hold that foreign bacon, eggs and potatoes, as they pay Customs duties, get an unfair preference over Argentine products, as the Argentine product has to pay at the city gates as an octroi or cisa, a sum equal to the import duty. But that is not all; every merchant has a patent or license to tak« out, just as do the hotelkeepers in New Zealand. An importer will pay equal to £2O or £3O, as the case may be, a retailer £4O to £SO, a wholesaler £SO to £IOO. On the top of this each cart a merchant employs pays £2 or £3 per annum, each window shade used by. a butcher to keep the sun off his meat pays £1 10s. Every advertisement on the city walls or hoardings pays Is 8d per square yard per month (except when the advertiser pays a bribe to the official and that worthy forgets to collect the account). Every truck of vegetables, every box of eggs, fish, every 101b of meat, all pay a tax. Hence we are here overrun with the taxcollector, continues the writer. Every motor pays a license,' every engine a special permit, every horse has to have its guia or letter of identification, setting out brand, etc., on a paper carrying a stamp worth Is Bd. Every milkman must got his rounds armed with his license in his pocket, as also even to the vegetable man. The police are on the' hunt the whole time for infringers of the law. They get 20 per cent, of the fine, so every milkman is bailed up by every aew bobby, and he has to stop and produce his papers, and \if the beats are changed the poor milk men or grocers' carts have a great time. They'lose half their time proving who they are. • If one forgets his license he is likely to fare badly. A commercial traveller not long ago was asked for his license. He replied that it was in his bag at.hjs hotel. He was marched off to the lock-up, and kept there all day. That night his bag was brought from the hotel and the license produced. Result, fine of 200 dollars, or £lB, for not being able to produce his license when called upon. When the police are hard up they can here soon find the monay to provide for their salaries, and they do. The police are paid by the municipality. When the municipal coffers are empty,' especially in the country towns, the methods of "raising the wind" are as varied as they are irregular.