DIRECT TAXATION AND FAIR PLAY FOR LABOR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 50, 29 February 1868, Page 2

DIRECT TAXATION AND FAIR PLAY FOR LABOR.

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Ma.ii,, Sir — In support of the position I have taken up io my former letters, that labor on the land is the mainspring or source of every other pursuit in life, I may add that it is also the origia of every species of worldly goods we possess ; for there is not an article we can lay our hands upon, nor any part of any article, but has sprung from the earth. The coal we burn, the food, and ale, and wine we consume, the silk, and cotton, and wool, and leather we wear j the ropes our ships are rigged with, the timber that forms their hulls, and the mahogany that embellishes our parlors in the shape of furniture, the china, glass, and ironware, all are the result of labor and skill bestowed on the various products of the soil, more or less directly* Hence a country like New Zealand, rich in miuerals, and timber, and flax, and with a healthy climate, which is moreover suitable for the production of wine, and silk, and various other important staples of commerce — in fact, cou'aining, as it does, all the elements of prosperity, and wealth, and happiness, in a very great degree indeed, aud peopled as it is by an industrious, orderly, and loyal population of Britons, it should, under wise government, be a laud overflowing with milk and honey for all alike, aad so ic might be, and so it will be, any moment that the people will see things rightly, and do away with the bad legislation that now mars the bounty of Provideuce in having so pleotifully placed all the elements of prosperity and happiness within our reach* And as au indispensable step in this direction we must away with all the various artificial difficulties that unwise legislation has created in the way of allowing the real settler and worker on the land to obtain a freehold in the country ? and so emancipate him from the clutches of money-lenders, whether in the shape of building societies, bill-brokers, or in any other form ; aud we must also away with the present necessaries-of-life Customs duties, so that a man can reap the just reward of his labor, for the further improvement of his land, and his own social and domestic advancement. But people never seem to think that these unjust Customs duties and bad land laws have anything to do with the dulness of trade, aad consequently look for help, not to a radical cure, such as the remedy I have just pointed out would afford, but to all sorts of possible stimulants, such as some grand scheme for spending a lot of English capital in the place, or Imperial expenditure on. a native war, or even to the spendiog of borrowed money on some public work, whether wanted or not, and while they are waiting for English capitalists to invest money in works they would not thiuk of risking a pound of their own in, and waiting in vain, they are neglecting the sure, and safe, and immediate help that lies within their reach, and which can be made available any moment the people will open their eyes, and see for thexoselveSj wherein their trne interest lies. As I have said, and as we all know, New Zealand abounds in almost every kind of wealth we can possess a wish for, but so long aB it is let alone, it is no wealth to us, and as long as such a large population of the labor of the colony i*

devoted to fattening schemers of the non-producing class* and to gratify others of this class in their desire for two mail services where one is sufficient, and as much as the country can afford ; and in obtaining such toys as a submarine telegraph; while so much of the labor of the country is devoted to such luxuries as these, of course the legitimate pursuits of the people must suffer, and they are suffering accordingly. If a man will sell his plough and some of his farming implements, and his plough-horses, and mortgage his land, in order to live in a fine house and dress in fine clothes, for the purpose of appearing great and grand, he not only saddles himself with a debt, but he also lessens his income, inasmuch as he has reduced his means of tilling the soil ; and he increases his expenditure, inasmuch as he has his interest to meet on his mortgage ; and so the money such a one has at his command to spend at the store in the necessaries of life, or in tilling his ground, or in starting his sons and daughters in the world, is reduced at both ends to a very alarming extent, and this is just what we have been doing as a nation, under our so called Responsible Government.

The people are so overwrought and pressed by taxation, on the one h .nd, and the burden of interest, and renewed bills and legal expenses arising from the contrivances in existence, for impeding men x>f small means from attaining freeholds, except at the sacrifice of help from the land jobber and money lender, that there is nothing left for the work of colonization at all. So much ready cash is drained off into the unliealthy channels I have pointed out, that the legitimate chanuels of trade and commerce are dried up, and the evil does not merely extend to the labor thus unhealthily diverted, but also includes the further loss that arises from the fact of all this labor being devoted to unproductive instead of to productive purposes, and so there is quite enough in all this to account for the evils, serious as they are, that we are laboring under, indeed there has been euough mal-legislation in New Zealand to crush almost any other country, aud it is a shame and a sin for people to be always pointing to Provincialism, as the cause of the embarrasment uuder which the country is laboring, and the destruction of Provincial Institutions as the sovereign remedy for all our woes, •when it is so clear that it is from the gross violations of the laws of nature, that I have referred to (and may exist just as well under one form of Goverumem as another) that the embarrassment arises. Having already trespassed too far upon your space, I must reserve the further consideration of the subject for another opportunity. Yours, &c, A Member of the League.