PROBABLE FISCAL MEASURES.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 513, 19 May 1879, Page 2

PROBABLE FISCAL MEASURES.

Various conjectures have been ventured as to the fiscal measures likely to be brought forward by the Government nest session, in order to meet the deficiency in revenue caused by the faUing-off in the Land Fund. That some new departure will have to be taken in regard to the financial policy of the Government is sufficiently clear. It is equally plain that the reimposition of any of the burdens receotly removed from the necessaries of life would be so highly unpopular and so inconsistent with the 'vjews loudly proclaimed by the Premier and other Ministers during their "stomping"

tours, that it may be dismissed at once. The plan which we have reason to believe will be proposed, and which is rumored to be now under the consideration of the Cabinet, is (1) to impose an income tax, and (2) to extend the present land tax by a graduated system, so as to reach the large landowners rather than tbe smaller proprietors. It is argued that these two imposts would compel property of every kind to contribute its quota towards the public revenue. The extended and graduated land tax would touch all classes of real property, while every other description of property could be got at by ajudiciously devised system of income tax. That some such proposal as this will be made in the coming Parliamentary session is almost certain, and it will be well that the subject should receive ample ventilation and public discussion beforehand.