TAXATION.

Evening Star, Issue 14225, 26 November 1909, Page 7

TAXATION.

TO TiTK EDITOR. 'I axpayer ” to inform your readers that lie was a student of common sense. Judging lb** tone and quality of his reasoning, this is a self-evident fact. The first thing one does when trying to reason on a subjcit of which one has little or no knowledge is to claim to be a student of common sense. “A Taxpayer” undoubtedly belongs to that class of individual. Like all students of common sense, he asks so many questions that to reply to them all would take up too much of your space; and, besides. [ have no wish to tire your readers with figures any more than l‘ can possibly help. The information "A Taxpayer" asks for can bo got from I he ‘New Zealand Tear Books The information given in the ‘Tear Book" is plain enough for any student of common sense to understand “A Taxpayer” says that I have not convinced him'that the worker pavs £9 per head towards the revenue. If'l have not done so it is surely not my fault. I made myself plain enough for any student of common sense to understand. I would like to ask: Tf the workers do not contribute the whole of the indirect taxation, who does? Last year’s revenue was £9.001,185. the direct taxation was £1,186,182. leaving £7.815,005 to be made up by indirect taxation. Will ” A Taxpayer ” inform me whether this largo amount was made up by the 11.000 Income Tax payers, who took as their share nearly £12,000,000 of the national income, or was it paid by those who did not have an income large enough to be taxed? A reply to this important question would be greatly appreciated by many of your readers in a footnote to one of “A Taxpayer’s” letters you stated that the 297.309 workers were included in the number 890.553. In my first letter 1 showed that this contention of “A Taxpayer” was not correct. But as he is not satisfied I will give the quotation on this matter taken from ‘ Hansard,’ No. 10. page 50. Sir J. G. Ward said: “There are 89,552 persons in New Zealand who pav no direct taxation whatever, and included there are 297,809 wage-earners who pay no direct taxation. 1 trust that ” A Taxpayer ” will now be satisfied.

Ihe old and fallacious argument that money creates money is trotted out bv “ A Taxpayer.” Hundreds of thousands of pounds is invested in the mines of NewSouth Wales at present. How much will this money make during the time the miners are on strike? Not enough to pay the east of a cable from New Soutli Wale's to Now Zealand. Of how much value is the thrift and brains of the shareholders and managers of the various mines when the toiler refuses to work? Will “A Taxpayer” toll ns? Lot ns not deceive ourselves, and recognise that the worker, both mental and manual, creates all wealth, and only gets just sufficient of the wealth created to keep him in that condition of health that will allow him to reproduce his kind, while those %vho neither toil nor spin get the lion's share. If the worker would only recognise his own right and strength, what a happy world this would soon be.—l am, etc., M. November 25.