TRADE AND TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 925, 14 March 1868, Page 3

TRADE AND TAXATION.

(From the 'Independent,' Feb. 29.) Ouk previous article referring to the commercial dejjression which unfortunately exists throughout the colony, receives strong confirmation in the figures some time ago published in the General Government Gazette, giving the Customs duties for the quarter ending 31st December, 1867, which show a very serious falling off as compared with the same quarter in the previous year. The returns for the September quarter of 1867 showed a decrease of £1,520 as compared with the same quarter in 1866, but the falling off is now very much more serious, being no less than £18,583. This will be seen by a perusal of the following figures : —

This general result applies to the whole colony, but when we examine the figures in detail, it is found that while the fallingoff iv most of the provinces is large, there has been an increase in the case of a few. Nelson shows a considerable increase of revenue, owing probably to its connection with the Buller and West Coast gold fields, while there is also an increase in Hawlre's Bay, and a very slight one in Wellington. In Auckland, Taranaki, and Canterbury, where the existing commercial depression is most severely felt, the falling-off in the revenue is most marked. Our contemporary, the Nelson Examiner, who quotes those figures, raises the question " whether the decrease of Customs is the effect of a diminution in our imports caused by other circumstances ; or whether the heavy tariff is the cause of the decrease in our. imports ?" There is no doubt but that a high tariff has a tendency to diminish consumption. Those articles which produce the larger amount of the revenue are in proportion more largely consumed by the poorer members of the community than by the rich. Tea, coffee, tobacco, fermented liquors, spirits, ordinary clothing, are the articles from which the largest amount of revenue is derived. Hence it follows that if the income of the great body of the colonists in New Zealand remains stationary and the tariff on those articles is raised, consumption will be checked ; because the people, with the same amount of money to spend as before, will be obliged to buy a smaller quantity of the commodities, so that imports must of course fall. The increased tariff does not, however, altogether explain why imports have decreased. As we pointed out in a previous article, the price obtained for wool, butter, produce, tind stock, has materially fallen, and producers obtain less money than they did a year ago. It therefore follows that they cannot spend so much money now as before, nor can they employ the same amount of labor. What must result from this is obvious. The consumers have become to a slight extent fewer, and their spending power has been materially curtailed. On the other hand, the tariff has been made higher, and the same amount of money will not purchase the same quantity of goods as it did before. Those two causes combined are perfectly sufficient to account for reduced imports and .a decreasing Customs revenue. There is on the one side a reduced demand and on the other a higher price. This is not a very satisfactory state of affairs, and our feeling of alarm is by no means allayed by remembering the fact that while the Customs revenue is now falling off, the percentage of duties charged on imports has been steadily increasing during the last six years. In 1862 the duty chai'ged by the Custom House was about £9 10s for every hundred pounds' worth of goods, and year by year the percentage has increased, till it reached, at the close of 1867, the sum of £14 15s. Thus the people are now paying a rate of taxation very much higher, while the revenue, as already pointed out, is falling off. If this evil were only a temporary one, we might patiently bear it, in the hope that better times would soon arrive. But the existing circumstances of the colony forbid us to entertain this view. No doubt, ultimately, when the enormous internal resources of New Zealand are more fully developed, it will rise, triumphantly over all the difficulties which now threaten it ; but before that time comes, much has to be gone through, and we are now called upon to deal with the circumstances of the present. What arc those circumstances ? The price of our staple exports has fallen, and less money will be received by the coloii) r for them. The power of the people to bear taxation is therefore weakened, and it follows that their burdens must be reduced. Ministers will no doubt say that this is impossible, that the expenditure cannot be reduced, and that if Government is to be carried on at all, the taxation and revenue must be kept up at their present rate. We entirely deny all such arguments. What is true with respect to a man's private affairs holds equally good with respect to those of a country. A person with an income of £1000 a-y ear may find that to keep up a certain style every penny of it is needed : but if, through unforseen circumstances, his income should be reduced by one-half, he must either bring his expenses within the lesser sum, or find his way into the Bankruptcy Court. Now New Zealand has hitherto been living too fast. Our native war— our confiscation scheme — our military settlements — our mail services and our telegraphic lines — have all cost an enormous deal of money, and some of them still involve an expenditure which the taxpayers can no longer afford. If, therefore, there is to be real retrenchment, the colony must abandon some of its luxuries, just as the reduced merchant is forced to give up his carriage and opera box. Then the expenses of Government could bo reduced if the people ouly set about the work in earnest. It has become a settled article of belief amongst some people that unless a certain number of ministers and expensive departments arc kept in existence, the business of the country must come to a stand-still. We do not in the least believe it. The country could go on quite as well lacking half the expensive and cumbrous machinery which has been created and added to by successive Governments. There are too many fat sinecures ; too many lucrative missions to England, on which thousands of pounds are spent, while the only benefit enjoyed is by the Minister who gets a pleasuretrip gratis ; too many creations of billets to be filled by the friends and proteges of men in power. The colony has had enough of those things, and the endurance of the taxpayer has already been so severely tried that further silent submission becomes impossible. The next session of Parliament will, we are convinced, show unmistakeably what is the feeling of the people, and we earnestly trust that it may result in such action as will relieve them to some extent of the burdens under which they are now almost crushed.

Quarter ending Quarter ending Dec. 81, 18G7. Dec. 31, 18C6, Auckland £26,056 ... £35,926 Taranaki 1.796 ... 3,499 Wellington 23.451 ... 23.395 Napier 7,277 ... 5,760 Total, N. Island £58,510 ' ... £68,580 Marlborough 1,601 ... 1,698 Nelson „ ... 19,990 ... 10 014 Canterbury 63,615 ... 76,858 OtHgo 56,284 ... 60,337 Southland 8,600 ... 9,766 Total, S. Island ' £150,090 ... £158,673 Grand totals £208,670 ... £227,253