HOW THE DRINK TRAFFIC ASSISTS THE REVENUE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1039, 22 June 1894, Page 3

HOW THE DRINK TRAFFIC ASSISTS THE REVENUE.

SIR ROBERT STOUT AJ PALMEjRSTOJST NOIIT H.

We hear the question asked, 'If you destroy all licenses, where are we to get the revenue from 1 You get for the general Government half-a-million of money from drink through the customs, and you get for your local bodies sixty or seventy thousand a year from licensing fees. Where are we to get the money from if. we shut up the public-houses V Where does the money come from 1 Who pays the publican \ You don't imagine that the publican or brewer pays the taxation out of his own pookfit. He must get the money from somewhere. What do you think we spend on drink in a year 1 More than two millions of money. Where does the money come from ? The money comes from the people's pockets. For example, there are 25 hotels in this electorate. Suppose for thpse 25 you get L4O a year each in taxes. That is LIOOO. Let us see where it conies from. It comes out of the pockets of those who drink. They pay the publicans the money ; it does not drop from the clouds. And what happens 1 If you calculate the amount of money collected by the publicans, and compare it wifh the rates paid by hotels, you will find that it will only represent something like 6d in the £ that goes to your local taxation. That is, for every £ spent in the publi'chousft, there is only about 6d of it that goes in the shape of: local taxation. If you take the number of people in a community — for example, in this electoral district — and calculate that every man, woman, and child pays between L 3 and L 4 a head — that is, spends that amount in liquor on an average — and then calculate how much of thatmoney cpes in local taxation, yon will find it is not much over 6d in the £. But suppose it is Is in. the £ ; that out of every £ spent in liquor Is goes in local rates. Where does the money come from 1 It conies out of tile 20s spent in drink. Well, we will suppose that, the people are called upon to make up this loss of revenue. What have they got 1 They have got a great many thousands in their pockets. If they wish to get roads for their counties and boroughs, they will pay the Is and keep the rest in th«ir pockets. Then in regard to the question of Colonial revenue. Who pays it? The people who drink. The very elements of political economy say that it is the consumer who pays. If you go to a grocer and buy sugar, he. pays the duty and charges it to you. If there? was no duty he could sell it to you cheaper. If there is any grocer in Palmers ton who does not charge the duty, he will soon have to go before the Official Assignee. The liquor seller makes a profit, and what does he do with itl He has to pay taxes, and has something left after paying customs duties, but the latter is charged to his customers. You are actually spending in New Zealand two millions a year in liquor, and only a small proportion goes to the revenue. Of course, it is very kind of those who drink to pay a share of our taxation ; but if the sale of liquor is stopped altogether, we are quite willing to pay our fair share. This money argument is one of the shallowest arguments that can be used in reference to the drink traffic. The money does not come from the clouds, it comes out of the people's pockets ; and I think it can be conveyed from the people's pockets to the Colonial Treasury without the aid of any brewer or publican.