THE FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7894, 19 June 1891, Page 6

THE FINANCIAL DEBATE.

(By Telegraph.)

(FEOM OtTE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) I WELLINGTON, June 18. f It has been decided that the debate on the Financial Statement shall commence offi Tuesday next, instead of on Friday, as afs first intended. This course has been adopted because the Opposition find there is so mucjt in the Budget, requiring study and consideration and consultation among t» members of the party. ; t I fiud there is a widely prevalent impr< jsion that the new taxes will not prodiee nearly the amount of revenue that i ie Treasurer estimates it to yield. I fc Jk freely rumored that the officers of iie Property-tax Department entertain doubts on the subject, to say the least. $|l cannot, of course, ask the officers to coinni|t a breach of confidence and of official retjiceuce by confirming their alleged misgivings, but I do know that before t»e S resent Ministry took office the late Mr perrey and his subordinates were quite convinced, after careful calculation, that »y no form of land and income-tax (unless, jpdeed, it were made so heavy in particular cases as to be intolerably oppressive) coigtd ; the amount of revenue be raised that is u<|pir produced by the property tax. I have fto reason to suppose that the officers changed their views, because it has becoi§s their duty to advise the Government as fo the best form of a tax which Ministers, &a% matter of policy, deem it wise to bring in.|? and which is so loudly demanded by a targeS section of the public. The weight oj* opinion among members still seems to be that ] the taxation proposals will "go down" in tl& House and in the country. At the sarcfe time some hold that the farmers will escape so easily as the Premier seeks w> make it appear, and that the bulk of them will come under the tax, at least as as they do under the property tax. Thetffe is no doubt at all that the whole Budgej; will undergo a very keen and searching an|l protracted criticism. $ j