The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1890.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5976, 31 October 1890, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1890.

As the mouthpiece of the leader of the Opposition the Wanganui Herald furnishes some interesting reading as reflecting the ever changing vagaries of Mr Ballance's political sentiments. Since Sir Robert Stout figuratively knocked Mr Ballance's principal '* plank" into shivers in his denunciation of a progressive land tax, the leader of the Opposition has found himself on shifty ground. We aro not surprised, therefore, to find our Wanganui contemporary adopting as its leading article a report of Mr W. C. Walker's speech, recently delivered at Ashburton. On the property-tax question Mr Walker said :—" He held that a laud tax, pure and simple, would be but a poor substitute for our property tax, so far as revenue was eono.rned, and he wus afraid it would be impossible for any Treasurer to attempt to do ii way with tho property tax. He would favor tho exemption of machinery and agricultural improvements. If this were done the tax would operate more satisfactorily. Any shrinkage iv tho revenue that was caused by exempting machinery and agricultural improvements might be met by the imposition of an income tax on fixed incomes above a curtain amount. Private railway companies required some redress. For instance, the Manawatu and Midland Railway Companies bad to pay the property tax, but tho shipping companies were ex. inpted. If it was sound policy to exempt a public carrier by sea it was equally sound policy to exempt a public carrier by land. A. land tax would press very hard on farmers, wlnlo the towns would escape. He was strongly of opinion that tbo country should not be taxed in a larger proportion than tho big towns. He was not prepared to accept a progressive land tax as a pieco of sound polioy, and he did not think that a tax of this sort had commended itself anywhere. He believed that in this colony every aero of land was taxed up to its full value." Now, if thp»obe one thing on which Mr Ballance can be said to have been fairly consistent it is in his advocacy of the abolition of the property tax and the imposition of a progressive land tax. It is therefore a curioqs example of the speed and ease with which he can " turn about and jump Jim Crow," to find him now applauding the views of ono of his own followers which are diametrically opposed to his own. In his closing speech in Parliament last session, on the Appropriation Bill, Mr Ballance expressed tho opinion that a graduated land ta? could bo justified ou sound economic principles. Tho Wanganui Chronicle thus chuff!* the leader of the Opposition :—" Mr Ballanco always indulges in apologetic arguments when his property tux supporters, Mr Lance and Mr Walker, ;'.i- sitting beside him. Therefore, he cautiously adds— 4 I do not know whether public opinion is or is not ripe for a graduated land tax * — whereupon thero is a glare on tho face of every extreme Badioal, and Mr Ballinice dodges the difficulty with* a tush— 'But J sbv that is a plank which overy Libera} should have as one of the first i" "M<* Inform.' That's splendid! Thut's just ~.t._r__ IWr P.lb.- ... . ~ olt'h.'B ~ „„ .........uoe hkea tv _.~i.p <»v nis planks—ou his platform. It is only when some genuine reformer ou the other side of the House knocks one of his well-seasoned planks out of his stauding platform, aud

puts it to some better purposes in the walls of the building, that he stumbles. It was on September 28th, when Mr Ballance, in thp presence of Messrs Walker and Lance, said he did not know whether public opinion was or was not ripe f r a graduated land tax. From the 23th September to to-day, the 28th Ootober—a whole month—is of course quite long enough for Mr Ballanee to change his mind."