Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1885. THE PROPERTY TAX.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7179, 3 June 1885, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1885. THE PROPERTY TAX.

From well-informed sources in Wellington comes very positive information that, to meet the extra charges occasioned by the defence preparations, and a probable deficit in the next year's I revenue, {Sir Julius Yogel will prepose lo increase the property tax to its former level of three farthings in the £1, if not to a penny, instead of abolishing it altogether this year, as he prophesied he would be able to do. It is said that he has come to this decision because he sees no other way of raising revenue so convenient. That may be s<>, but conveniency should not stand in the way of a desirable reform, and in his election addresses, and subsequently in the House, he repeatedly indicated the abolition of. the property tax as a desirable reform. In his Financial Statement he condemned the tax, and on the second reading of the Property Tax Bill he eaid :— " I believe that if we had not, in a chivalrous notion of the demands of a sort of understanding that had been arrived at, felt ourselves precluded from making a rate which would cover the charge of local charitable institutions, we might have done away with this hateful tax altogether. lam strongly of opinion that it is better to have no tax the indirect effect of which is to drive away capital, and to reduce the means of expenditure from all sources for the development of the resources of the colony ; but if there is to be a tar of the kind, a moderate land tax, localised in its application, is, to my mind, a fair one ; and if there is necesit3 r to go beyond that—which I, for one, do not suppose it will be— l say a tax upon the earnings of the people is certainly much fairer than a tax so senseless as this upon property." If an increase in the tax is proposed it will be interesting to compare what Sir Julius will then have to say with the above extract.