THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1892. GRADUATED TAXATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2304, 12 January 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1892. GRADUATED TAXATION.

Wk do not at all wonder at the outcry raised by those whom it touches against Mr Ballance’s graduated taxation. It is a thing that they have never been used to, to be actually called on to pay taxes according to their means, and the length of time during which they have hitherto escaped, the necessity has seemed, no doubt, to establish a sort of prescriptive right to a perpetual exemption. They have not paid their just due for a time “ whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary”; and every statute of limitations, from the reign of James I. downwards, “runs” against the demand. We can understand all this, though to be sure it may not be the mark of perfect wisdom to bring so strongly before the colonial taxpayer the long arrear of default which lie Jigs to fall back upon should circumstances so require. We have, however, no present intention to raise this part of the question. There is another point which is being industriously put forward, with very little really to show for it, and we feel moved to expose its baselessness. It is a simple falsification of notorious facts, as well as a denial of the acknowledged principles of public finance, when graduated taxation is spoken of as something wholly unheard of, and as carrying within it the essential element of confiscation—as a robbing of the rich in pretended easement of the poor, who are solemnly warned that the time will come when, &c. The short truth is that graduated taxation has long been an accepted principle in the annual budgets at Home. It has been acted on by both parties, and its further developeraent is at this moment one of the planks of the Liberal platform. It is more years ago than we can at the moment remember since Mr Gladstone first introduced the principle of graduated taxation into his budget in connection with the Death duties. In 1885 Mr Chamberlain made its further application a prominent feature in his electioneering speeches. His first essay upon it was at Hull, where he was present in his character as a Minister of the Crown, speaking in support of the Government candidate. Some years later, when he had transferred his allegiance and dropped most of his principles, this remained intact. We find him at a (so-called) Unionist meeting at Greenwich, thanking Mr Goschen, then as nojv Lord Salisbury’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what he had done in the same direction, and expressing himself satisfied under the circumstances, although it was “only on a small scale.” And now we have, among other signs of the times, Sir Charles Dilke giving us in the pages of the new Review an elaborate outline of the future Radical programme, of which graduated taxation is among the most prominent features. It is obviously idle after this to speak of Mr Ballance’s taxation policy as something unheard of. It is nothing more than the simple carrying out, according to its natural progress, a great principle of taxation, which has been acted on by both parties at Home, and which promises more and more to be the basis of public finance for the future.

We might leave the matter here, but we have spoken of principles as well as practice, and Mr Chamberlain’s Hull speech puts the matter so clearly that, at the risk of weakening it by unavoidable omission, we will close this article with an extract — “It is not our duty,” says Mr Chamberlain, “it is not our wish to pull down and abase the rich, although I do not think that an excessive aggregation of wealth in a few hands is of advantage to anybody. I am opposed to confiscation in any shape or . form, but I am in favor of accompanying the protection which we extend to property with a large and stringent -interpretation of the obligations of property. All the political economists are agreed that the true principle of taxation is equality of sacrifice. It is perfectly absurd to talk of equality of sacrifice when a great Duke, with £300,000 or £IOO,OOO a year, or a capitalist with £IO,OOO a year, pays in exactly the same proportion as a working man with 20s a week.” Mr Chamberlain then gives the statistics of the question, for which we have no room now, and continues —“ At the present time the working classes have to pay upon their available income more than double the rate which is paid by the upper and ipiddle classes. In ray opinion there is only one wa}' in which this injustice can properly be remedied, and that is by some scheme of graduated taxation—a taxation which increases in proportion to the amount of property taxed. It need not necessarily be a graduated income tax. Jt might lie more convenient to levy it in the shape of a graduated death tax, or a graduated house tax. 1 care nothing about the method, j What I want to bring before you is I the principle,” '