The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 708, 30 December 1876, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

An argument freely used against the fairness of the working of the new constitutional changes in our local self-government is the charge th it they will entail increased taxation on land, and especially on improved lands, and that the boroughs and municipalities will be tbe only gainers by the change, while country districts will sufter. If such were the case, little could be said in their favour ; but is it really so ? In the first place we find that in the division of the subsidies, payable by Government, municipalities and boroughs will receive only £1 for£l where counties and road boards will together receive £2 for £1. Thus while a great advantage is given to the country district it is,after all,only a fair division, for independently of the fact that the country districts have the roads of the -colony generally to open up and maintain, it must not be forgotten that just in proportion as the land fond, whence the half of these subsidies is derived, increases, se also do the liability and expenditure of the country districts within whii-h the lands are sold. New roads are required, and though the rateable area is extended also, the expenditure caused by them, at the first at any rate, is out of all proportion to the increased income. On the other band, the centres of population may as justly claim a subsidy from the consolidated fund. Statistics will show that they contribute more laigely than the country districts to the ordinary revenue of the colony. When, therefore, country districts receive an equal subsidy with the centres of population from this fund, ami in addition receive a second similar amonnt from the land fund, ir which the municipalities do not participate, it is scarcely to be sate that, as compared with the centre? of population, they are unfairly treated. It must, too, be borne ir. mind that while the Act expi'esslj states that the subsidies receivable from the consolidated fund shall be paid for five yeais after the Ac< comes into operation and no longer no such restriction is imposed in the case of the subsidies derivable from the land fund. Thus lit the end o five years municipalities and centres of population will cease to receive any subsidy at all, while countrj districts will be still drawing theii £ for £ from the laud fund. That the new constitution changes are more burdensome to lane than the form of government thoj have replaced, is open to question They leave the rating principle jusl where it was. On the contrary, they largely and, as we have shown, exceptionally subsidise the self-taxa-tion of the landowner. That the present principle of lating works uufairly upon the bona fide settler and improver, being in fact a direct tax on improvements, is patent enough, but it -was not to bo expected that the incorporation of the remedy in the new constitutional changes sought to be effected would be resorted to, to the risk of provoking further hostility where already so much existed. The remedy, if desired, may be far better brought about by special legislation. A. small property tax, where the rate would be on the acreage, and not on I the value to sell, would meet the case ; but whether that at present is advisable or not, is not now the point under discussion. That which now immediately concerns us is, whether, under the county system, the landowners are heavier taxed than they previously were. It has been said that they are liable to taxation to the extent j of at least five shillings in the £. where, under the road board system alone, they were liable to only two rates, a general and a special one of one shilling each in the £. Now, in addition to these, the County can raise a shilling general rate, a shilling special rate, and at least a shilling rate to provide interest and sinking fund on possible loans. It must, however, be remembered that the County Council can raise the first mentioned only of the last three rates of its own free will. Before it can raise either of the two last, it must hare the special sanction of a majority of the ratepayers, and only after long and ample notice of its intentions having been made public ; so that the increased po.\er of their representatives to tax the ratepayers, given under the new constitutional changes, does not exceed one shilling in the £, or a sum larger than the additional subsidy from the land fund which they will now enjoy. It was smart and epigrammatic to style the new system, "a machine for selftaxation," by which the colonists might have whatever they pleased, a bridge here and a road there, if they only chose to tax themselves for it— but whore else, in common sense, can the money come from, if not from our own pockets. The strings of the Julian lucky-bag have at last been drawn tight — we have worked on borrowed capital till we can borrow no longer — and matters have come to such a pass that our local communities, like the units of which they are formed, must themselves pay for what they want, or go without.

The question raised by our correspondent, S. A. M , the other tl.iy, whether — seeing that they will, through their respective road boards, get full subsidies even should thoy not bring the Counties Act into full operation — it is to the interest of the ratepayers to go to the expense of woiking the new institutions will, doubtle-s, be pretty freely discussed throughout the Colony, True, as he says, they may save the expense of Chairman, clerk's salary and offices, but then we must remember that the alternative is not only the acceptance of a pure Centralism, but a refusal on our part to assist in working out the development and growth of local self-government, and surely, to effect that much, is worth something. Of course, if we cannot find seven men in a county who cm be trnsted with tho expenditure of the extra twenty shillings subsidy we are now to receive, there is an end of the matter at once, but, we scarcely think tint this will be admitted to be the case in any pai't of the Colony. As has been said, the County salaries may be saved by lefusing to work the Act. Whether it will be worth while to hang the Act up, for the sake of saving these expenses, remains to be shown. The ratepayers, doubtless, would take full caie that the necessary offices were not converted into what are generally comprehended under the tide of billets, and if due economy is practised, the departmental cost of the Councils may be kept within narrow i limits. Still, even this may be saved, and we may enjoy the double subsidy in full all the same, if we are willing to forego local selfgovernment, and fall back tipon a pure Centralism. The legislature has given us our slice of bread, and has liberally spread upon it bntter from the land fund dairy, and jam from -the consolidated revenue tin. It will bo for the peoplo very soon to decide whether they will, as some children do with their bread and jam, bite the jam off and throw the bread away, or make a hearty and substantial meal of it altogether.

Hi AT UR DA y DECEMBER 30, 1870

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