CLASS TAXATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3008, 24 October 1891, Page 5 (Supplement)

CLASS TAXATION.

In* a recent number C.f (he Quarterly RoI view, in an article reviewing " 1 I'lou for Liberty." an argument against S'■;i• i i lism in d So':i,ili-tio legislation emmi-tiiii; of mi inr.ri.d r:l i<m by [ferbert Sp. ;ic»i and e-.nys by various .vrher,-. ihe full i - intr passage occurs: — " Qiii-.«ti»n*of tiixation will no doubt occur wi'li r 'fi-reu"e to the workintrman's condition. and tho proposal wili be made, of course, to tax accumulated property. The employer, the chief friend of artisans, should for their peculiar benefit bo left unnvili-sted by fiscal officers. From whatever H-nivee obtained, an income never should be taxed, since this involves with indirect taxation, double import on the sune amount of money ; that in when receive I and when expended. Sound taxation, will be limited to what a man enjoys by personal expenditure. His surplus income, beyond what he himself expends, he does not personally enjoy ; he lays it by us capital by which the working people are employed and he airain enjoys that portion of the income from this savinsr that lie spends, the rest bocoming further capital. All capital is therefore in effect tiio beneficial and peculiar possession of the working class, the legal owner is but the administrator, who receives bis five or ton per rent, as a reinum-ration. Therefore to tax property as a relief to working people is a folly ; much as if the seed or corn were taxed to benefit the agriculturist. Such confiscation iN moreover an indmesment to proprietors to limit saviour, or to take their capital abroad, away from Englnad ; or to spend tho whole of th -ir net income. If, when they deny themselves aud make accumulations that the spendthrift noil-accumulators u-e, they are deprived of their own property, why then an end of investments that so tempt men to injustice, the endurance and provision for the future will bo systematically disregarded. (l Lot us oat aud drink, for to-morrow we die. " The itreatest caution should ho used in legislative power to prohibit, any recrudescenceof th"" old disease of pauperism. There are few who can now recollect tho state of things before tho present Poor Law was enacted ; ana it may be, therefore well to raise a note of warmuir. In days the wager) of great numbers of the working classes were very low ; and their employers got their labour cheap since out-»f-door relief, supplied by the comuninity, was used to supplement the insuliicient waues. Often tho bcneficent community would be a different p-.iriih from the one in which the employer lived, and so he would escape from even bis own share of rating to support his uuderp;.id labourers.

"All mitigations of taxation for the working class, and advantages, like workmen's trains, are merely elements of pauperism, an authorita:ive eking out of wages, a protection granted to a portion of the class above, the employers of the workmen, and are therefore a contrivance for the whole clas* of artisans If working men become trustworthy their whole rate of will inevitably ri-''. and all the pauperism of cheap workmen's trains and other doles will be rejected as a stigma on a sulf-respeetii'.g, indepenent class of men. It u-ems at pre-cnt that tho lower middle class are over-tax. d against the class above them ; but all favor should bo studiously abandoned, and taxation should ue rigorous on every man's expenditure; on that which lie enjoys, however small or large ; and to remit taxation, to whatever elms, is an injustice that will breed furLlier wron_ r , until a chaos of accumulated inoon*i»tem favor brings a revolution. Nothinsr em now bo of no much economical advantage to the labourer as perfect, liberty, uninterrupted opportuuily, and entire freedom from patronage, ■which is the infliction of another's views on (hose unable lo resist them, or lo discern piopovly their bad result. A partial ivido rcmittanco of income tax is but a form of indioriminate almsgiving, reprobated universally by those most competent to estimate its bad effects. What workmen chiefly need is the removal of restrictions, tho abate ment of pernicious customs, and tho development of necessary public works ; and every form of special help and favour should thereafter bo abandoned. '