THE GUM EXPORT TAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9230, 19 June 1893, Page 3

THE GUM EXPORT TAX.

TO the EDITOR. Sir, — Recent issues of the local Press seem favourable to the imposition of an export tax on kauri gum with the alleged object of enabling the Government the better to subsidise the various County Councils through whose districts the most of this traffic finds its way to the ports of shipment, and which in transit is chargeable with the present damaged condition of the Northern thoroughfares. As one interested in the rcum trade, anil pretty familiar with most of its " wrinkles " both here and abroad, I beg your indulgence for space sufficient to reply to some of the theories that have been advanced in support of the proposed tax. My sympathies are of course quite in accordance with the object of the tax — road maintenance. I fear, however, that when it becomes clearly demonstrated 011 whose shoulders such a tax is bound to fall, this sentiment will be found generally lacking in the North. It has been suggested that a £5 per ton tax could easily be got out of our American and British manufacturers with this object in view, but we aro left in ignorance by what process it is to be accomplished. That the shrewd American any more than anyone else will pay without receiving an equivalent is not to oe expected, and presuming that he gives what he considers the value of the gum, is it likely ho will smilingly pay. more under any pretence whatever ? Legislation of such a type can in my opinion result only in injury to the industry aud to the thousands whose sole means of existence is dependent on it, besides which there is the possibility of our being left severely alone with our gum 011 hand, the manufacturer turning his attention to those fields from whence he drew his supplies years before New Zealand gum had a place in the markets of the world ; for it should be noted that there are roughly speaking half-a-dozen other countries _ in various parts of the world capable of filling the breach should the New Zealand supply be shut off. The trade as carried on at present, especially with America, suits both countries equally. Do away with the gum export to til at country and what else have we to take its place equivalent in bulk or value that is not indigenous or procurable in America? To me it seems clear that neither the American or British manufacturer is likely to help us to mend our roads, and it seems quite as unlikely that the country storekeeper or town merchant will come to the rescue, or if he does in the first instance his purchases from the digger are bound to be made with the tax in view. Now, I submit that the lot of the average digger in these days is sufficiently hard without his being saddled with a tax of 5a per cwt on his earnings. Were it not that gum commands a much higher price than was the case oven five or six years ago, many who still manage to eke out an existence would be thrown on the charitable resources of the colony or otherwise swell the ranks of the unemployed. It may be argued that for years there has been no diminution of the supply, or if anything that it has been greater than ever. This is to be accounted for solely by the increasing numbers on the fields, not as to the supply l)eing inexhaustible, for as a matter of fact it is only by unremitting industry in all sorts of weather that only a scant wage cau bo earned on any of the older fields. I shall, however, leave this view of the. matter j to some digger, whose pen might do it more j justice than mine. Another and no less serious source of alarm to the gumdigging community, and which has i probably prompted the present Commission |

of inquiry info tho gum industry by the Government, is the reported advance of sonje thousands of foreigners— chiefly— to invade our "guinfields. Naturally those whose living depends on gam are averse to suoh invasion of their little territory by men whoso object so far has been to earn and carry out of the country all they can, hence the cry for means and power to suppress it. The proposed tax on exported gum would be futile for this purpose, falling as it would on all. A poll tax has been suggested as a deterrent, but a poll tax on Europeans in a British colony would never do. The best suggestion so far is that brought forward by Mr. Heather, requiring foreigners to become British subjects before they can attack the gumfields. There has been some speculation as to how these people have come like a deluge upon usby whose influence, etc. My opinion of the matter is that certain parties did so well on some of the fields that they were able to make the trip home, and so circulated among their friends the existence to them of this El Dorado. Personally I had no animus against the men, whom I have invariably found industrious, frugal, and honest; at the same time 1 should be sorry indeed to see an influx of men -with no other object in view than that of making a small fortune as a few pounds in their eyes are, and then clearing out, to the detriment of colonists and those who would cast in their lot among us. The Austrian influx is a novelty in our experience ; and we cannot yet be certain that we may not recruit some excellent colonists from among these people. _ It is possible that we are begging tho question with regard to them. In any case, whether we tax them directly by means of a poll-tax, issue licenses only to British subjects to dig gum, or exclude them by an Act of the Legislature, we may expect to have trouble with the Austrian Government, which i 3 paternal in the best sense of tho term. It is a principle which has long been recognised by well-informed economists and statesmen, that it is a ruinous error to impose a tax on exports. The kauri gum industry hangs 011 a slender thread of successful competition. The ■ slightest additional strain upon it will, beyond doubt, break that thread. _ Once broken that thread can never be re-united. No, cause and effect are antecedent and . consequent invariably. The cause of bad roads in the North is lack of funds due to deficient settlement. The impediment to settlement is the fact that all the good lands are in the hands of the Maoris. Allow the Maoris to individualise their titles and to traffic in and deal with their lands, and settlement will proceed, and with it with equal step the resources of taxation. Good roads will necessarily follow as day does the night; and the prosperity of the colony will be founded then on a secure basis. —I am. etc., Geo. W. S. Patterson. Kaikohe, Bay of Islands, June 14,1893.