The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1900. THE NEW TARIFF.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 199, 22 August 1900, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1900. THE NEW TARIFF.

For tie causa that lacfcs assistance, For the -wrens that nacfla resistance, For the future ia tie dist&ncs, And the good ttoat; to can do.

Surplus or deficit in national finance, both are to the ordinary taxpayer little more than abstract mathematical expressions. It is only as he is consciously affected by them through the process of direct or indirect taxation that they arouse more than a passing interest. The surplus has been so, constant an ornament of the budgets of the past few years, without the average taxpayers feeling in any intimate personal sense benefited by it, that ho might almost be excused for regarding it as a normal factor in the fiscal arrangements 6i the country with which he Was little concerned. That Mr Seddon's Statement this year has aroused so much more interest than any one he has previously brought down is due to the fact that we are all made direct participators in the surplus which it announces. When a surplus is diverted to public works, which it has been the policy of past years to do, however much it may benefit the ccmntry and save from borrowing, we cannot appreciate it as when it leads to the remission of the duties on the necessaries of life. Probably not the most consummate stroke of enlightened finance would be so certain of general approval as a reduction of the" tea tax, for instance. It is not surprising, then, that Mr Seddon takes captive the heart of the community with a budget that removes all duty from kerosene, rice, coffee, cocoa, and salt, and reduces by one-half the tax levied on tea, currants and raisins, candles, and matches. At once we see ourselves made richer in pocket by such finance, and make glad accordingly. Perhap3 the satisfaction may be somewhat out of proportion to the value of the actual benefits to be ultimately derived by the consumer from the remissions and reductions, but still these are on a scale that marks a epoch in the history of the, New Zealand tariff. The remission of duty on kerosene, for example, is a, rich gift to the people throughout the country, jverosene is our great illuminant, and'in more senses than one does.it contribute to lighten the homes of *sew Zealand. .'Under the new tariff consumers will get it for two-thirds the' price they have been paying. The reduction of the duty on tea from 4d per pound to 3d cannot, of course, so appreciably affect the price of that indispensable article, especially so far as the consumer who buys in small quantities is concerned, and for that reason one might question the wisdom of cutting down by onehalf the considerable 1 sum of £78,000 received in duty. It is worth noting that 4d per lb is the amount of duty in a free trade country like England. Coffee and cocoa, the. two other great non-alcoholic drinks, stand even in,a better position than tea. The duty on cocoa has been 3d the lb, and on coffee 2d or sd, according as the article is fresh or roasted. Now all will be free. In England cocoa pays Id per lb, and coffee l-|d per lb raw, and 3d per lb roasted. The New Zealand coffee and cocoa drinkers, like the tea bibbers, will, therefore, be in a better position than their friends in the Old- Country. Free rice—it "has till now been taxed 3-7ths of a penny per lb — and currants and raisins bearing duty of a penny instead of 2d per lb, should all prove a distinct gain to the people at large. As regards the reduction from 40 to 15 per cent, of the duty on • patent medicines, we confess we scarcely see any great reason for the change. We would rather have seen a larger .reduction in the duty on drugs and druggists' sundries and chemicals.

Other objections than those we have hinted at will certainly be raised when the tariff is discussed in the House. One objection particularly has already found loud expression. It refers to the arrangement by which the duty on candles has been reduced from 2d to Id per lb, while the duty on stearine, which is used in the manufacture of candles, remains as at present, at Hd per lb. The candle makers declare that this arrangement must kill the local industry, which is one of considerable importance in the colony. How far this is correct we are scarcely qualified to judge. It appears to us somewhat of an anomaly, however, to grant the local manufacturer a protection of even a penny a pound and to tax an article from which' he makes

candles at l|d per lb. If a reduction oi! the duty on stearine will reconcile the manufacturers to the reduction on imported candles, it should be clone. But in view of the fact that only some ninety tons or so of stearine is imported into the country, as against close on eight hundrea tons of candles, we are disposed to think it is the reduction of the duty on candles rather than the absence of a proportionate reduction of the duty on stearine that is the real ground of objection. The makers .of wax matches complain, like the candle makers, that the reduction of half the duty on imported vestas will ruin the manufacture here, but in this case, even more than in that of tlie candle industry, one cannot speak confidently without special knowledge. The reductions on several kinds of machinery do not appear to be open to objection, but in connection with machinery for dairying it has been suggested that this large and peculiarly successful industry might further be helped by an increase in the duty on preserved milk. Tlie imported article is now subject to a tax of 26 per cent, ad valorem, and our annual importations amount, to close on 300 tons.

Throiighout the mercantile community exception is taken to the tarilf reductions on the ground that they come into force at once. This arrangement, it is pointed out, must injuriously and unfairly affect those merchants who have large stocks on which they have already paid duty by making it possible for the merchant with little or nothing on hand to import at the present reduced tariff and undersell his neighbour. Meetings have been held all over the colony to consider this point, and as we write our Chamber of Commerce is giving it consideration. The remedy which the merchants suggest is that the alterations in the. tariff should not come into force till January. They contend that although for obvious reasons changes in the tariff involving increases of duty come into operation at once, in the case of reductions the rule is to give the merchants time to clear their old stocks. We believe that is the usual custom, and hence we do not quite understand Mr McGowan's reply to the Dunetlin and Christchureh merchants that it is impossible. Xo loss is entailed on the Government by such an arrangement, and the postponement for a few months in the operation of the new tariff would not affect consumers very materially. Even if the present decision is adhered to, the public are not likely to reap immediate benefit from the reduction. On the other hand, it is not improbable that merchants somewhat exaggerate their greivance, as we are all

apt to do in similar circumstances,. Except, perhaps, in the case of patent medicines and tea, the existing stocks which have paid duty under 'the old tariff cannot, in.most eases, be very .heavy.