The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, FEB. 9, 1889.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2587, 9 February 1889, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

SATURDAY, FEB. 9, 1889.

Equal and exact justice to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

Tiie Premier's (netting in Auckland oa Wednesday was very largely attended, but was not a satisfactory one to him. From the outset of his address hie audience betrayed their hostility to the subject of his theme ; the badgering and frequeut interruptions he was met with weredeculedly unpleasant to him, and in the end all his arguments and logic utterly failed to convince the meeting, or to evoke a single word iu favour of the Property-tax. This result will not cause surprise to those who read the full report of the Colonial Treasurer's speech, which was full of fallacies and dogmatic conclusions that could not hold their ground when met by the personal knowledge and experience of the meeting of the. pernicious effects of the tax. The Premier could not gloss over the evidences of their own eyes. Me began by saying that he had arrived at the conclusion in his own >>>irid that the Property-tax was the most equitable tax which could he .imposed. He snapped his fingers at the teachings of all the great thinkers ou political economy whose doctrines he scornfully regarded as merely so much worn-out. old-world errors; practically, he claimed to be a greater authority than they are. When a man assumes such an arrogant attitude, it naturally follows that he weakens his own position and loses public sympathy. He rejects the experience and example of England in popular forms of taxation, and unreservedly accepts the example of t.he United States as his guide. He appears enamoured of democracy as it exists in America, and the operations of the Property-tax in the. Republic win his warm admiration Thoughtful Americans assert that true democracy is found in England, where the will of the people, governs, and that only the shadow of democracy is found in America. Without, however, debating this point, it is a fact that there exists no such direct system of taxation in the United States for Federal purposes. Personal and real propsrty are subjected to local taxation in several of the States of the Union ; but the whole of the National revenue of

the Republic is obtained from the Customs and from inland taxation. Many of our politicians are inclined to make the same mistake in seeking a parallel in the con, ditions of this small colony and those of the vast Republic, when 110 such parallel exists. The Premier declared the Government were compelled to raise by taxation nearly £-100,000, after making reductions as far an it was possible to make them. This taxation had to be done iu the most agreeable manner, and that he found was in the Propertytax. In neither of these two statements will the people of the North agree with him. The Pro-perty-tax has proved eminently disagreeable to them. They are by 110 means satisfied that all ertorts towards retrenchment and economy have been exhausted ; they regard it as certain that the expenditure can be cut down to a much larger extent than has yet been done, and that it should have been effectually accomplished before the heavy burden of taxation had been increased. Sir Harry Atkinson laid it down as an axiom that "all taxation must fee paid out of earnings." Yet, ho immediately proceeded to demonstrate that "it was a mistake to ad-

vonatc an Income-tax, apparently oblivious to the fact that income is earnings, and, therefore, should be taxed. As he put it, the Propertytax taxes a man upon what lie puts liy, and can leave behind him when he dies. He has thus unconsciously summed up its injustice. It taxes the industry and thrift of the people, An Income-tax is a charge on a man's annual income. There is no difficulty in the method by which the assessments are made ; the English system is simple and not inquisitorial. Ihe taxpayer pays on his yearly income, whatever that may be, as given in the assessor's returns. He does not centinue to pay the tax

on the same year's income in future years without end. That, however, is precisely what the Property-tax requires. The man who improves his property has, by industry and thrift, laid by substance for his family, or other purpose, and for this he is taxed : the Property-tax collector springs on him at once. But he does not leave him alone; he comes round next year, and taxes the same identical improvements and substance —perhaps at a higher value, and lie continues to do this, taxing the same thing, year after year. If the thrifty man is foolish enough to make additional improvements, or add to his substance, it is so much more grist for the tax-gatherer's mill. There is no such monstrous injustice in the Income or the Landtax. The former is a tax on what a man earns in the one year, and goes no further. If lie earns nothing, if lie has no income next year, he has nothing to be taxed. The Property-tax repeats this year the same burden it intiicted on hist year's improvements, and on the year before that; once it has its grasp 011 one's industry it goes on throttling it. The Income-tax, as itis in operation in Great Britain, includes annual incomes of £100 and upwards, from land and all other sources, and it is the most direct form of raising revenue without inflicting injustice on the people. The difficulties raised by the Premier in the way of collecting payments, under this form of taxation, from the people in this country are purely imaginary. There has been 110

diiHculty in doing so for generations in the Old Country, with its teeming population and constitutional changes. The Premier said that under an Income-tax the man who had a line house, expensive furniture, costing no money (1) —the man who spent ,£5,000, .£IO,OOO or £20,000 in pictures, would be relieved of taxation. This is clearly wrong. Before a man can be in a position to enjoy these luxuries he must have earned the money ; he Hiust have acquired it either by his own exertions or had it bequeathed to him. In any case it has at some time or other been earned, and has paid its quota of direct taxation when so earned. The luxuries procured by it do not suffer the perpetual infliction which the Property-tax imposes upon them, and which the Premier desires; and their possessor goes 011 paying indirect taxation like other classes of the people. The Premier leaves it to be understood that he abhors wealthy men who patronise the line arts and encourage the growth of culture in a nation. He likes to have a nation of toilers only, out of whom he can wring taxation. We must not have well-to-do people in this country, the rewards of long lives of patient industry and thrift must not be reaped in New Zealand ; therefore, we have th" Pro-perty-tax. The man who, more than any other, has <>one to the money-lender and carried on a carreer of political extravagance and corruption for years, now looks with virtuous horror 011 the acquisition of line homes, comfort, and refinement by successful colonists, if all have to escape the Pro-perty-tax. The Premier protested that whilst a certain amount of capital—nervous capital, he called it— has been withdrawn from the colony and has been kept from coming into it, there is more capital now in New

Zealand than ever before ; it was the bad security offered that gave it fear. It is true there is a large amount of capital in New Zealand ; but it is idle, it is with-held from investment, not from fear of bad securities, as meant by the Premier, but becau-.e of the iniquities of the Property-tax, Our securities are affected by the tax. Notwithstanding Sir 11. A. A tkinson's sneer at the opinions of tin? financial News and Economist, the views of such able authorities, as well as those of many other distinguished iinaneiers and economists, 011 the consequences of the Property-tax are far more weighty and trustworthy than his own.