Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1893. THE MANAWATU RAILWAY TAXATION.

Evening Post, Volume XLVI, Issue 16, 19 July 1893, Page 2

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1893. THE MANAWATU RAILWAY TAXATION.

♦ Mb. E. M. Smith sometimes makes a shrewd or wise suggestion. A question which he has placed upon to-day's Order Papor embodies a suggestion whioh is both ■hrcwd and wise. It refors to the Manawatu Railway. Mr. Smith wants the Government to freo tbo Manawatu Company from local and genoral taxation if the Company will in return expedite its passenger serviocß by separating thorn from tho goods traffic We huvo not, of course, any hope or expectation that tho Government will do anything of the kind. It is far too wise, proper, and desirable a thing for the Government to possibly aocode to. Bat Mr. Smith's proposal is undoubtedly what ought to bo dqne. It is tho right thing, so far as it goes. It does not even go tho full extent demanded by abstract right so far as the Company is concernod. It is an nnjust and impolitic thing that the Company whioh constructed snob, a railway should be subjected to special taxation, oithorgoneral or local. On oapital invested in an enterprise of this kind, the benefits of which to the community have been so enormouß as to be absolutely incalculable, no special burden should be imposed. All that should be demanded is tho ordinary Income Tax on profits. That is all the Government should oxaot. Apart from that, a railway such as that between the Manawatn and Wellington should be as free from taxation as if it were tho property of the State, which of ooursn it must ultimately become. The special general and local taxation lovied on tho Company is of course really levied on the section of the publio which uses this line. Mr. Smith's question realises and recognises this fact. He does not propose to remit taxation for the pnrpoao of Bwelling tbo shareholders' dividends, but desires that the money now paid in taxation should bo devoted to providing extra facilities of traffic for those who use the line. Instead of being dovoted to the payment of taxes, Mr. Smith wants tbe money spent in improving the service. It would bo a most desirable alteration from tho standpoint of tho public. The Company would no doubt gladly fall in with the proposal, althongh it would not derive any direot advantage from tho remission of taxation. A purely passenger service is urgently required on tho line; but tho Company, whioh is bled and mnloted by the tax-collector on all sides, oannot be expected to bear the loss which subh a service would at first entail. No donbt in the end snob a service would pay, but the company's tenare is so uncertain , became the Govern-