The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1886. PAYING AND BEING HAPPY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2227, 23 February 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1886. PAYING AND BEING HAPPY.

■ftiE^an^nni. Herald,. in-airecent article: on • 'the:■■ existing ,■■ depression,; made the following statement jv*" The depression is no worse here than in other parts of the world, and much less than in such colonies as South Australia. Our taxation is not hurting the individual taxpayer, and the ..bulk of the pepple do not feel it;: they pay, without knowing it, and are happy," j'Our Wanganui contemporary is very much under the control of' 3ff : Ballance, and may bo said to;be his' organ.; We are not surprised to And such an organ take such a Mark Tapley view of the financial condition of colonisjj3,... It is true that the comparison with South Australia is somewhat suggestive, for jif iv.e are not better off here than in a colony jfhich is now paralizedbya phenomenally W harvest, our condition is pitiable, jftisj quite possible that a man like Mr Balance docn not feel the pressure of; taxation, or a paper like the Herald,; basking in the £ull sunshine of official j advertisements (we ftejieve we are correct in saying that si,e present •Ministry, unlike their predecessors, tell;! ;heads of departments occasionally to-, advertise in papers whioh support/: them, and not to give advertisements j| to the opposition press), does not mind J a little taxation, but somehow wj

cannot holp thinking that the average country settler is not quite so happy as lie is painted by our contemporary. Do not the bulk ot the people realise the fact that they pay more for what they eat and drink, and for the clothes they wear, than they do in England, and that the main cause of the excess is taxation? Does not a man, when he pays his ten or twenty pounds of Property Tax, feel the payment, more especially, as is sometimes the case, when he has to dismiss a working hand to raise the money, Do not settlers feel local taxation, which has increased on all sides, as a natural sequel to an augmented general taxation. The average settler does not pay some forty or fifty pounds a year towards direct and indirect taxation without knowing it! He is not such a fool as to be in such a state of blissful ignorance. Men certainly do pay their taxes, but in many instances they make the payment out of borrowed money; Money is cheap now, and this fact accounts for the patience with which we bear the ills we have,