PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12468, 12 January 1904, Page 3

PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

TO THE EIiITOH. _ Sir,—My note on the I'enrhyn slate que-s----lion was written in the interests of sound trading, foi it. seems to me that this is the real question at; issue in the present fiscal discussion throughout the Empire. By sound trading i mean receiving for your exports more, than you pay out for 'imports, and transferring the difference to your capital account— wealth. This capital may be invested in any way you like —in loans, in land, or in ai;y other way—but that, is beside the issue, which is the simple one mentioned above. Trading in which imports exceed exports is not," sound, and cart never be so, even though the imports are paid for in some way." as yom correspondent puts it. The discharge of the liability incurred in a bad business transaction can never make that, transaction a good one. To pay for imports with capital is therefore to my mind a bad thing, but it does not seem to present itself in the same light to Mr. Stevens. ITo even takes great pains to show that when he made, tfm statement | that imports must, be paid by exports capital i was also in his mind. For he states (and I j have no fault to find with this statement) I that " Britain's exports are her stock-in- ; trade, her capital, and it is interest on that i capital invested abroad in the, past m the ! .shape of exports in innumerable ways and ! places that swells the value of British imj ports," which is tantamount to saying that j Britain has done an excellent export trade i in tin-* past, become very wealthy as c result of it, and now can afford to buy largely j the things she needs instead of going to the j trouble of producing or manufacturing them j —all of which is very true, very comforting, j but is not. sound' trading. Moreover, ex- -- " >rts in the past having resulted in capital rathe present, why are we not more soli- _■■'-" ' c or our exports in the present with a I to capital in the future ? Mr. Stevens .j '"Krasts New Zealand with Britain in the ! jollowing terms: —"New Zealand, on the i.other hand, being a borrower, and having I interest to pay, her exports exceeded her | imports in 1902 by more, than two and a- | quarter million sterling." Quite so; New | Zealand having no capital had to borrow, ; thereby incurving the liability of interest, which can be met only by profits over and! above current expenses, she must earn the money, and she does so by working hard, producing and selling more than she imi ports; in other words, she indulges in . sound, profitable trading.—l am, etc., j PIIKFKUENOB, 1 THE LAND TAX. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I made a return under the Land and Income Assessment Act of land held by me : tip to March 31, 1902, and pair) land tax on , same. According to such Act a return is ! required biennially, that will bo of land held ; by me as at March 31, 1904 About June or I duly of 1903 my land was revalued by the j Department at a substantial increase, and j when called upon to do so I paid my 'n- ' creased rates under protest, contending that such revaluation should have taken effort? only at the end of live biennial period—that' is, March 31, 1904. So far ? have been unable to find any person clear enough on the question to decide the point, and as 1 rind that it affects a large number of your readers as well as myself I havo appealed to you for an explanation.—*'! am, etc., 1 Taxpayer. ! [Though returns of land are made for bv ennial periods, the Valuer-General may 1 \ order valuations at any time, but the tax- ■ payer has always the right to object to hi? • i assessments. —En.]