"EX PEDE HERCULEM."

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 20 January 1872, Page 12

" EX PEDE HERCULEM."

"Nelson Examiner," January 6. Character often shows itself most fully in small matters. In important affairs, where men expect to have their neighbours' eyes fixed upon them they are circumspect, and often contrive to appear as they would wish to be, or to be thought to be. In trifles that are less likely to meet close criticism, an unconscious candour exposes the actual man, and those who make men their study attach a high value to the indications afforded by trifles. The " Stamp Duties Amendment Act 1871," deals with charges of a penny in the pound or of a shilling per cent — things small in themselves ; but the way in which these trifles are treated is a pretty sure index to the mind of the deviser of the Act. We would not be bo harsh as to say, the gentleman in question is deficient in good-will towards men, but assuredly his good-will towards large capital and large capitalists far outshines his philanthropy. The eft'ect of the Act is to extend the number of persons taxed under the stamp duties. Among the reasons alleged in favour of these duties, the one which was most weighty as well as most popular was to this effect : The bulk of the Customs taxation falls on the more numerous and poorer working classes. Import duties and excise are neces« sarily levied on articles of common necessity, and approach to the character of a poll tax, inasmuch as it has always been found impossible so to levy them as to make the burden increase with the wealth of the consumer. Stamp duties, on the other handj being in many cases charged ad valorem on the amount of consideration in transactions of a class with which poor men havelittle to do, approach more nearly to a tax on property. Mr. Vogel's new duties tend to remove this contrast, and assimilate the incidence of the Stampduties to that of the Customs. The minimum amount chargeable with the duty on receipts is lowered from five pounds to two pounds, thus including a vast number of small transactions, and hitting a great number of small people. Many receiptsfor the weekly wages, and many for the monthly bills of people in a very small way, are now chargeable, and the increasein the number of persons paying this tax must be considerable, and entirely at the poorer end of the scale. The numerous devices already found to elude or reduce the weight of a tax which has thus at a stroke been increased five-fold, show how obnoxious it is, and may seriously affect the correctness of the calculated proceeds. The increased tax on drafts and orders is also in the wrong direction, depending on the number not the importance and amount of the transactions. Falling mainly on bank cheques, it cannot be objected to as a tax on the poor, for all who can afford the convenience of an account at a bank may fairly be classed among easy men. But it will affect small dealers most, and will partially fail by contracting the number of small cheques drawn. The smaller sort of people will be debarred some of the convenience and security ol'abank, and will draw larger and fewer cheques than heretofore, exposing more money to risk of loss and theft in their cash-boxes and purses. The license duty on companies has the same vice in it. The large private capitalist is let off scot free, but should he sell his trade to a company of, say a hundred men of small means, they become at once liable to the tax. Messrs. M'Meckan and Blackwood, and Messrs. Edwards and Company, carry on their trade free from the burden, but the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company, the YiTanganui Steam Company, and the Waitara Company, far smaller concerns, owned in part by persons of very little capital, are taxed. This is not equity or policy. Nor does the vice stop here ; even among the companies which fall under the tax the same want of equitable apportionment of the burden is visible. Their capital is taxed one shilling per cent, per annum, up to £4*00,000, and from that point the tax is stationary ; £4,000,000 pays no more. The bearing of the tax, considered with reference to profits, is equally unfair. This duty on combined enterprise is impolitic and wrong in an extraordinary degree, and is altogether out of harmony with modern ideas and tendencies. It is of the first importance to encourage cooperation; and whilst this injurious tax was being devised, a joint stock dairy company, the first we would hope of

many combinations among the farming population, was being set on foot in Otago. Why should gold and flax be favoured with exemption from burdens, which are inflicted on grain and flour, cheese, butter, bacon, and preserved meat, if produced under economical conditions by co-operative action ? We are, however, grateful for this little nibbling, inadequate piece of taxation. It is to a wide class a small home-warning of the future in store. To anyone among them who will be at the trouble of considering its details, it affords some indication of the spirit in which Mr. Vogel will get about levying those far larger amounts which his plans will shortly require of the patient population.