TAXATION IN THE COLONY

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 787, 11 March 1871, Page 3

TAXATION IN THE COLONY

The following figures will show the population, expenditure, and rate per head of taxation in ihe several colonie-', and how our Colony contrasts with the others: New South "Wales Population, 406,765 expenditure, £3,25 C,539 ; rale per head, £7 O.s 10Jd. Victoria —Population, 681,316 expenditure, £3,440,811; rate per head, £5 Os 9fd. South Australia Population, 176,298 ; expenditure, £1,353,189 ; rate per head, £7 lis Of. West Aut-tralia—Population, 22,763; expenditure, £89,720 ; rate per head, £3 18s 6d. Tasmania—Population, 100,706 ; expenditure, £348,561; rate per head, £3 9s 2f. New Zealand —Population, 227,810 ; expenditure, £2,470,243; rate per head, £lO 16s 101 d Queensland Pooulation, 107,427 ; expenditure, £797,470 ; rate per head, £7 Bss|d. All Australia Population, estimated at 1,786,055 ; expenditure, £11,500,000; rate per head, about £6Ss9|d. Dominion of Canada Population, 3,969,912; £2,853,036; rate per head, lis 4fd. All North American Colonies—Population, 4,114,150; expenditure, £3,187,797 ; rate per head, 15s 3d. West Indies—Population, 931,197; expenditure, 926,672; rate per head, 19s lOd. Ceylon—Population, 2,081,395 ; expenditure, £974,650; rate per head, 9s 4R. Mauritius— Population,32l,4o2; expenditure, £641,272; rate per head, £ll9s6d. Hong Kong—Population, 119,321; expenditure, £205,651; rate per head, £1 14 llfd. In part explanation of the startling figure cut by New Zealand in this table, it is right to recall the fact that this Colony was in 1868 engaged in a war with the natives : but it has also to be added that, proportionately enormous as was the expenditure in that year, it was considerably less than in any one of the four years preceding. Further, New Zealand has been borrowing very heavily, and the present amount of the colonial debt is £7,182,744, which gives a debt on each man, woman, and child in the colony of £3l, or, for debt alone a pressure of 16 per cent, greater than is borne by the old country. In the expenditure or taxation of the other Australian colonics for the latest year given in the returns, we can find nothing exceptional, and are so left face to face with the fact that the rate of taxation per head in the Australian colonies is fully three times greater than in the mother country. In some cases a proportion of the expenditure may be less for purposes strictly proper to Government than for public works of various kinds, which may ultimately prove remunerative, directly or indirectly ; but, making all possible allowances, there must still remain the fact that government in the Australian colonies, and especially in the largest and most prosperous of them, is expensive beyond all precedent either in old countries or new. The most lightly taxed of these colonies pay a higher rate of taxation than even Holland, the most highly taxed of European countries.