THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MAY 17, 1892. THE LAND AND INCOME TAX.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2357, 17 May 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MAY 17, 1892. THE LAND AND INCOME TAX.

We learn on the highest authority that the revenue from the Land and Income tax will realise more than the Colonial Treasurer's most sanguine expectations. Almost all the papers are now in, and the officers of the department have made their calculations, with the result that they are in a position to say definitely that the new taxation will yield more than enough revenue. This we have on the highest authority, and is, we think, excellent news. The cry has hitherto been that the revenue from the new taxation would not be sufficient to carry i on the government of the country, that there would be a deficit, that consequently our credit would be injured, and that eventually the tax on farmers would be increased. This prophecy will not be fulfilled, and, unless we make a great mistake, farmers will not think a great deal of the prophets when the truth becomes known. The taxation of the average farmer will be reduced by one-half, [ the taxation on large estates will be } greatly increased : sixty thousand l pounds,will be put into the pockets of the small farmers, and this will be collected from owners of large estates, and the money —rings generally. Farmers have not begun to experience the benefits of this yet, but they will soon do so, and then they will see how foolish they have been in the past in voting for the Tory party. In 1885 ' the Stout-Vogel Government brought in a bill to exempt from taxation £3OOO worth of improvements, exactly • as the present Government has done now. The farmers voted against | them and put in the Tories to strike I a blowat Sir Julius Vogel, undoubtedly \ the ablest politician New Zealand has . ever seen. What has that blow at Sir ; Julius Vogel cost them since ? That l was seven years ago, and the cost has been the amount of the reduction now ' made multiplied, by seven. Ifthere- ; duction in a farmers taxation amounts ! to £2, he has lost £l4 by the blow he struck at Sir Julius Vogel ; if his reductions amounts to £lO he has lost £7O, and this money has gone into the pockets of the large landowners and money-ringers, and with it they r have been able to visit the old country keep horses, and hounds, town and country houses, and live in luxury, while the poor unfortunate farmer has been working from daylight till dark trying to make both ends meet. But this would have been a very small affair 1 if it had been the only evil result of the [ change of Government. It was more serious by far that between 20,000 and and 30,000 people were driven out of , the colony, that £2,400,000 was added to our national debt, and that taxation was greatly increased. We are told that great retrenchm«nfc was effect, but it is still a fact, which no | one can gainsay that taxation was in-jncf°-a*ed by at t '" . -25 mr cent, on the value do not mean . Vj - • ■' ■ v -' c l. \ t .» «»ur (Mint, pi* tjje of property, but 2d . «•-•»-- . amount of the previous . ~' Then our lands on which the peopic would have been settled fell into the hands of dummies and from them it passed to the large land owners and money-rings. These are some of the results which have accrued to those who thought it a fine thing to hit Sir Julius Vogel, but when they look back and see what a mistake they made, it will we are sure, prove a warning to them not to err in the same way in future. Why did they strike at Sir Julius Vogel ; Simply because a cry was raised against him, just as the cry is being raised now about driving capital out of the country. Let "farmers beware of cries ; they have been duped long enough. If money was leaving the country the rate of interest would have been raised but it has not. There is any amount of money lying idle. All these cries are got up to delude far- I mers into voting for the conservatives, but we feel sure farmers will not fall into the same mistake again, they will ' see before the next election who their i real friends are and doubtless will vote , for keeping them in power. ■

THE MEMBER FOR KAIAPOI. Mr Scorik Mackenzie must look to liis laurels if he wants to retain the belt as the champion political story-teller of New Zealand. Mr Mackenzie has had no equal in that respect so far, but a dangerous rival has now risen in the person of Mr Moore, member for Kaiapoi, if the recent reports of his speech to his constituents be correct. Pie said the Grey Government left a deficit of one million, that the Stout-Yogel Government left a deficit of over half a million, and that the present Government wanted to raise the honorarium from £2lO to £250. We are quoting from the Christchurch Press and the Kangiora Standard, As regards the first assertion the truth is exaggerated fifty times ; the second is more recent history which every one ought to know. The Stout-Yogel Government left a deficit of £92,000, but it would have been more only for a windfall which came into the Treasury. Still every Government gets windfalls like it sometime or another, so that the real deficit was £92,000, and Mr Moore has stood before his constituents and said without a blush that it was over half a million. Then he said the Government tried to raise the honorarium from £2lO to £250. Now, Mr Moore has pocketed his honorarium, and he ought to know that at present it is only £150; he ought also to know that the Government only proposed to raise it to £240. But Mr Moore wanted to frighten his constituents ; he knew he could not do it if he confined himself to the truth, so he took this playful way of exaggerating everything. He did not say that the Atkinsonians left to the StoutYogel Government a deficit of £150,000; he did not say that in the hands of the Atkinsonians the deficit of £92,000 became a deficit of £528,000 in eighteen months. No, it did not suit him to tell the truth, and he did not tell it. What Mr Moore says does not matter a great deal; he is regarded as a political nonentity, and consequently can never do either good or harm. But it is a serious matter to find members ofParliament, noodles even though they may be, not only wreckless as regards the truth, but coining deliberate falsehoods to mislead the public. No doubt Mr Moore thinks this very clever, but lie will be found out in the course of time, and then he will realise that the public will not appreciate this sort of thing.