REPLY TO "VOX POPULL"

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8196, 6 March 1890, Page 3

REPLY TO "VOX POPULL"

'.- TO THE EDITOR. '■ • . Sir,—Your correspondent "Vox \ Populi* has a great deal yet to learn upon the subject of taxation.. With regard to placing the revenue lost if the property tax i 3 ; repealed upon i Customs- duties, he i says i—" If * the same amount now raised by the property tax was placed on the Customs duties, a strong expression of dissent would be given whilst the measure was passing through .. the House, but there the opposition would end." Byway of emphasising this, he points out that some two years ago, when our treasurer imposed very heavy fresh Customs duties, the people, though they kicked up a row at the i time; ; quietly submitted to the robbery, and paid up without a murmur. "Vox Populi'' seems to be unaware that up till the time of Charles I. of England the land contributed all the revenue required for all national purposes. - Charles's Parliament introduced a ; bill imposing excise and Customs duties. t This was a great innovation, and was bitterly opposed by some of the members of Parliament, 5 who l pointed ' out that by it the land, which ought and hitherto always had, supplied the necessary national revenue, would-be eased of its burden, and men wonld have to pay taxes out of their labour. k One member said, " The ignorance of the people may at the present time prevent them from seeing the gross injustice of this tax, but the time will come when-they will see it, and -bitter will be the awakening." ; It was ultimately passed by n two votes only. Oliver CromwelL ; on succeeding Charles, ; did away with the excise f and Customs arid re-imposed the land tax. His revenue from this source was £4,000,000 sterling per annum. The revenue from this source fast year. :in England, was V only £1,000,000 sterling, notwithstanding; the almost miraculous, increase in the vame of real estate since the time of Oliver Cromwell. Charles 11. re-imposed the excise and customs duties, and eased the landowners. From that time forward I the landowners*of the United Kingdom shifted the burden of taxation on to property and labour, until now they pay the merest trifle in proportion to that which they should pay. Had the land tax in the United Kingdom been fairly levied last year, a revenue of £56,000,000 would have been derived i from it, whereas £1,000,000 was all that was obtained: It is quite true, as "Vox Populi," asserts, that the people of New Zealand accepted quietly the imposition of that enormous sum which our Treasurer placed on the Customs two years ago, but he must surely in his own mind trace some connection between this cruel robbery and the depression ruling throughout nearly all classes of society in this colony, and the great exodus sof our population which has taken place since then! It stands to reason that, let the taxation of a country be ever so indirect and ignorantly unfelt by a population, yet there is a limit which, if reached and overstepped, means > misery arid ruin to the taxed citizen. This limit was long ago reached by us, arid the last heavy impost overstepped it, and drove many hundreds of our oest citizens into exile, and many more hundreds into the ranks of the unemployed. The effect of placing the £380,000 now raised from tlhe property tax upon the Customs might not raise a rebellion, but it would inevitably depopulate the country. ' --::■:■'* Vox Populi" asks, " Where are the large landed estates in this part of the colony at least " that could be taxed sufficiently to make up their share of the lost property tax. He must see that this is not an Auckland but a national question, Auckland fortunately contained country not at all suited-ior pastoral purposes, but parts of it were ad.; mirably adapted for small farms. Had Auckland been a pastoral country like the Southern 1 provincial districts, '■ this colony would now be a veritable sleepy hollow throughout its length arid breadth, like in fact unto Tasmania. Auckland has been, in my opinion, the political saviour of New Zealand, and it is to her -the rest of the colony will yet have to look for future radical reforms. Again, "Vox Populi" says: "The people cannot be got to go upon the land with every inducement given them, and X do not see how. taxing the land is going to act as airesh impetus to occupy it." I will tell him. The people will not go upon the land because to accomplish their purpose they will have tc accept land cast on one side by the land speculators as worthless; they will; have to go beyond the bounds of civilisation, with no means of communication with centres of population, • their only. 1 hope being to lead a life of hard, unceasing drudgery, gaining nothing by it but a bare; and miserable subsistence. Somemany have done this, and shuffled on for years, hoping against hope, positively wasting their lives, and debarring themselves of all those comforts and necessaries of • civilisation which in this nineteenth century all should be allowed to enjoy. How would a land tax alter this ? In this way : The * good and accessible land within reach of civilisation and the centres of population would be brought into the market 'at a price that people could afford to i pay. u Then we should see agricultural operations commencing from the centres, and stretching even further and further away, and all equally would then enjoy the benefit iof our nigh civilisation. ; - ;:.v. ' ■'"'-;■, :.Z':': i It is not Auckland and the Auckland large estates that is keeping the colony back, but the fact that 18,000,000 acres of the best and most accessible land in the whole colony is held by 1600 people, who run sheep upon it to the exclusion of a bona fide agricultural population. " Vox Populi" writes correctly when he says "New Zealand at present ha 3 the most liberal land laws that could be found in any part of the world." *?But what is the use of liberal land laws when there is no land to operate on ? The time to have granted liberal land laws was fifty years ago. Now, when all the best land is monopolised, the land laws can only be taken advantage of by a few individuals, whereas we require hundreds of thousands of energetic families if we wish this country to progress and prosper. Giving us. liberal; land laws now that the land is gone is like shut ting and locking the stable-door after the horse has been stolen. »m,&e., . H. W. Faenall.