CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXIII, Issue 35, 10 February 1899, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

LET TRUTH PKEVAIL.

To the Editor of "The Evening Mail." Sir— ln a former iotter I stated that the Premier is never so happy as when he is on the stamp, because then he is fooling the people all the time. You can find plenty of proof of this when reading the speech he gave at the Provincial Hall. There he boasted of many things in his usual boastful way. He claimed that " another sign of progress was shown by the fact that from IS9I to 1893 the population had increased 115,000." But he omitted to cay that 104,000 of this was i natural increase, and so far from that being 4 eked upon by the wage-earning tax- I payer as an unmixed blessing it may be considered somewhat doubtful, because of the added responsibility which it brings Evidently what Mr Seddon would have us believe is that the country during his administration has been so attractive as to draw from other countries a large population to its shores. But the statement in that sense is iutogether misleading. Babies may increase the population ; but it takes some years to turn them into breadwinners and taxpayers. Id fact under oar present con.... ;jna the greater the natural increase the greater struggle liea in front of the breadwinner. These numbers only showan addition to the adult population for the last eight years of say 1500 per annum. Now what we really want in this roiintrj is adult population of the njrhtkind to help us to pay the interest on the borrowed milliona. We want an inflow of healthy adult male workers to balance our present population. But how are we to attract these people 't We cannot expect a heavily indeb.ed country and a low wage rate to attract. Nothing but a good general rate of wage will do 30, and so long as we have the Government labourer at tis Od a day. the casual labourer with an average earning of £40 or .£,50 a year, and the Government co-operative labourer at from 3s Od up to (is a da-, as the base of our wage ayatom, ao Ion? shall we fail to attract the population we want. It i 3 all very fine for tricky politicians to get on the stump and throw a loc of figures at us ; but we are fool 3 and blind if we do not look into the matter for ourselves. The net public indebtedness of the colony per head last year was £60 Is lid. Now many of your readers will most likely exclaim, •• And what of that ? Wo shall nevt.i be asked to pay it." "Well no, I 3uppose not. It would be rather awktvard, of cuiicse, if Bob Smith, the co-op-erative labourer, with a wife and ten children, making a dozen of them altogether, were suddenly called upon to pay £735, hia share of the debt. Of course Bob would smila at the bare idea of the thing. But that i 3 scarcely the way to look at it. Bob Smith n3 well as the rest of us have to pay the annual interest on our debt. And that brings me again to the question of taxation and another misstatemont of the Premier when he claimed that taxation had not been increased. It is only by means oE taxation that we obtain the interest. The amount of annual taxation per head is £3 13s lid. Now thi3 seems a very aimple thing to s:iy and does not look large. But when we consider that for Bob Smith (and all the other Bob Smiths in the colony) it is an annual responsibility of say £45, it is no laughing matter. And if the Bob Smiths of the colony think they shirk contributing all that it is possible to contribute towards this sum out of their annual earnings, then the Bob Smith family are fools. I should like to point out to those who take for gospel all that the Premier Jsays that taxes fall on the broad winner? of a community. Dependent cannot pay, and so this £'A 13s lid per head has to ;be paid by the earners for all those who' do not earn. So that, as ainatterof fact, in round numbers 300,000 are responsible for 783,000. These 300,000 breadwinners are composed of males and females of all age 3 but the males predominate greatly — Males, 239,862 ; females, 53,070. It is certain that many of those classed as breadwinners nre to some extent dependents also, that is to say, they are not earning all that is necessary to keep them. This reduces the actual tuxpaying num- ! ber still more, and for all practical purposes increases the per capita tax enormously. Now if these 300,000 were primary producers it way be some comfort to us ; but when we find that only about onethird of them are then it if, another matter, because the other two-thirds are altogether dependent on them for their earning power. If the pimary producers flourish, well and good : if they are in trouble then all the breadwinners suffer in varying degrees. This cannot be said to be a satisfactory state of affairs, notwithstanding the assertions of the Premier and all the budding Colonial Treasurers who are his satellitesl'ractically, then, for taxpaying purposes our public debt may be put down at £140 per head and our annual taxation at £!) Der head, because it is utterly useless and fallacious to oharge a liability ngainst those who are quite unable to pay, and who it wp.s nnver intended should pay. Many other interesting statements (or inisstatemonts) could bo* culled from the Premier's speech ; but £ regret that the call on my time for getting the necessary bread and butter does not allow of my saying more at present. W\th great respect to the Seddonian " Liberals," II am, etc., DEMOCRAT.