The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JULY 15, 1887. COMMON ENEMIES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2648, 15 July 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JULY 15, 1887. COMMON ENEMIES.

The atmosphere is full of tho policies just now launched into space by the political adventurers of the hour. Some of these policies are poisonous deleterious nostrums, which may be regarded as common enemies. They sprout under various names, though they are all intimately related to one another, and have but one object, viz., to bleed the more wealthy members of the community. One political adventurer calls his quack remedy a progressive tax, another terms it a progressive land tax, a third swears by a progressive income tax, and a fourth by a progressive tariff. All tho fads are progressive andliberal, highly progressive and truly liberal. These election cries suit impecunious candidates who appeal to the equally impecunious electors, and say you and I are poor, let. us go and rob, well, net exactly rob, but Tax the wealthy man. These bursting up policies are immensely popular, and no carpet bagger in the colony dare take the field without displaying a small assortment of them. We do not blame the electors for the shortsighted view which they sometimes take of the gentry who sell their souls and the country in which they reside, to obtain votes. They do not stop to think what the consequences of bursting up policies are, and in the face of it deem it to he a fair thing to put the burden on the back that is best able to boar it. But we do blame the candidates who are well aware that such policies really mean the ruin and degradation of the colony. We do censuro the candidates who boldly appeal not to the reason I but to the passion of the people, who set class against class and man against man, merely to gain a selfish distinction for themselves merely to reach place and power by pandering to the weakness of their fellow men. Such men preach the pernicious doctrine that in a colony where all men should be equal a man who acquired wealth should be. so taxed that he should become poor. They maintain that as a man struggles upwards he should be pullod downwards by progressive taxation and they are persuaded that the capital may be bled by differential levies" But while

eiiunoiating' those; popwliif' ancl:.da»gprous doctrines tbey.are thoroughly well aware that the result of them will bring; evil and disaster on tlie-' coimtry, - that they will afflict not therich who are pro- 1 posed to be shol at, but the poor 'who', are, to do .the shooting, little: tlrinlring; that the weapons they are.: fingering: will recoil on' themselves, We defy the political adventurers who arHoatiug all sort of progressive policies to. bleed the rich. Capital is very sensitive,. and. is already t on;jlie., 'wing:: and .taking its departure from the. colony, It moves easily and readily, its owners are not tied to one district.or one: country, it is the poor mail that has to remain and stand the brunt of bad times, while the rich one, flies merrily away. A progressive tax aimed .at capital simply means tliaiinen wanting, money, and who ddes'nt want it ?'will -have to pay ten or twelve per cent instead of six for accommodation, and that, consequently, such men will not be able to afford to borrow except for urgent purposes; that they.: will -have no money to spend on improvements and that the pinch"jwill bo. felt .inost severely by those': dependent upon wages., Capital can-always take careof itself. If it is not a welcome guest in one place it is eagerly sought after in another. Lattorly capital has not been well treated in this colony and it has vanished away leaving as a sorry substitute a new poor rate and i a ;dis : : contented people'wlio are the dupes of every political adventurer who seeks to gull them,