N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1888.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 844, 4 May 1888, Page 16

N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1888.

Thebe appears now to be little doubt that some fresh taxation will have to be imposed during the coming session. Notwithstanding all the retrenchment that has been carried out, the resuits of which are, we understand, savings to a larger-amount even than was promised, the revenue that can be calculated upon will not meet the expenditure that has to be provided for. The new loans, which amount in all to nearly 2\ millions—viz., the North Island loan, £1,000,000 ; tlVe new loan, £1,000,000; and the funded deficit, nearly another half million—will involve an additional charge on the revenue of fully £IOO,OOO per annum, and this must be provided in some way. The difficulty will be to decide Low the extra sum shall be obtained. Various ‘ proposals, have been made. Tho Customs duties generally ** are hardly susceptible of being made to yield much more than at present. But there are some exceptions. The duties on tea, sugar, or spirits, or on all three would probably by a small increase "produce the sum required without the additional impost being very much felt. An addition to the Property-tax has also been suggested, but there are many manifest objections to this course. The tax, at its present rate of a penny in the pouud, is not oppressive, and does not operate deterrently on the influx of capital or on its investment here, but if once we began to increase by fractions above a penny, serious alarm would be caused to capitalists, who would naturally feel that when the standard of one penny had been passed there was no security of any finality at all. The tax might grow from

lvd to and 2d, and then to 3d or 4d or more. To make the Property-tax higher than a penny, would assuredly have the effect of frightening away capital. A more sensible course Would be to lower the exemption from £SOO to £2OO of less, rind iu ohe of dth'ef df these ways, or by co.'rribtnirig them', the extra revenue that is wanted might probably be obtained without any material hardship/ accruing.

An alternative plan lias, however, been suggested, and is, we believe, under the consideration—although, we hope, not the “ favourable consideration ” —of the CJoVeFnmfint. The proposal is that ah IncOtrie-tas. should be leVibd in addition to the Properbytafe, blit Rtlite Separately from this. All incomes derived from professional earning's, from salaries, or from trade, .above £IOO or £2OO a year, would be subject to this tax. In cases of merchants or tradesmen the taxable income would be the net surplus of* profit over all working expenses. Incomes drawn from land, mortgages, banking or other shares, and similar investments would not be taxed, because these investments are already subject to Property-tax. We mention this suggestion simply to condemn it most emphatically. Those who advocate an Income-tax have very little idea how burdensome it would be found. Its necessarily inquisitorial character, which ' made it for years intensely unpopular in England—a feeling which still largely prevails would render it quite insupportable in a comparatively small community like this. It would be all very well to declare that, as in the case of the Property-tax, the information given to the Department was strictly confidential, but that would not satisfy people Whose profoundest business secrets were being relentlessly pried into. They Would deeply resenc the intrusion into the privacy of their business affairs. Many a business has its secrets—perhaps even its skeleton in the cupboard —and the exposure even to a Government Department would be felt to be intolerable. Such an inquisitorial system is wholv unsuited to a colonial community, and its introduction would inevitably prove a fatal mistake on the part of any Ministry injudicious enough to take such a step. In'recollection. however, of the present Premier’s frequent condemnations of an Income-tax as applied to this Colony, we are not apprehensive that he will commit so grave a blunder as to propose it.