Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1874.] WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1894. SWEATING THE PEOPLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4829, 19 September 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1874.] WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1894. SWEATING THE PEOPLE.

Wo learn from the Waipawa Mail that the relative taxation of the three principal colonies of Australasia, according to the latest figures obtainable - those for 1893, is as under: Victoria, £2 3s Id per head; New South Wales, £2 Gs lOd ; and ' Now Zealand a long waj on top with £3 lis 2d per head, These figures show the total taxation from all sources. A comparison between the ' Custom House taxation of the same three Colonies is instructive. It is as below, the figures for 1893 being again given: Victoria, £l7s Gdpor head; New South Wales, £1 Ms Id per head; New Zealand £2 9s 8d per head. The pains that the present Government take to protect the people in New Zealand from being "sweated" in any shape or form are much to be commended, but if . the abovo figures be correct are we ; not compelled to infer that ' Government itself is. a gigantic sweating machine which is afflicting colonists in almost a phenomenal manner. The key note of the Ministerial policy seems to bo to sweat the people in every possible manner, and to make such sweating a State monopoly. If the taxation'in Victoria is one third less than in New Zealand, it must follow that people resident in this Colony will in time bo disposed to take their goods and okttels to Victoria or New South Wales, where they will bo comparatively exempt from a Government screw, Taxation is a thing that grows while men are sleeping. Each new ■Ministry that comes into office endeavours to increase it, and oui present rulers have not been behind hand with their predecessors in this particular. Thoyhave inventedand introduced new varieties of taxation, and in their hands the burdens of the people increase session by session. Our Custom duties are nearly double the Custom duties of Victoria, and what says Mr Seddon to this ? Does he not want to raise them a little higher as a promotion to local industries. In New Zealand, Liberalism has como to mean a heavy taxation of the many for the benefit of the few. When avo read that New Zealand pays £3 lis 2d per head in taxation we have to bear in mind that this means that a family, say a man, wife, and fivn children, pays the Government £2113s 2d per annum for its paternal care, and if the man's income be under a hundred pounds, per annum it is quite evident that i he pays no inconsiderable proportion of it to the State. Of course ■;the bulk of the payment is 'made up of indirect taxes, through his storekeeper, draper, tobacconist, aucl.publican, but.it is made, all the same. , The man with a wife and five chil-: drenpays£l7 7s~Bd per annum in i this form of indirect taxation, that i is six shillings a week, Wliy.should • a man in New Zealand pay 'eix'shil- j lings a week wheu a man in Victoria only pays three and sixpence per ( week i The answer of courso is | that ihe men' of ! New Zealand are | Bigger fools than the men of Vic- I toria, : Does Mr Seddon know this, i and work on his superior know < led|e;FvA:;-:^V ; : ; ' .v..;; M