WHO CAN PAY THE WAR TAX ?

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4309, 19 March 1901, Page 2

WHO CAN PAY THE WAR TAX ?

UNEXPLORED RESOURCES OF SOUTH AFRICA. (By Douglas Story, in the “Daily Mail.’’) Non- that the question of paying for the war in South Africa has become a pressing one, amateur financiers, all more or !ess interested in protecting their own pockets, and all more cr less ignorant of the resources of South Africa, are offering gratuitous advice to the Government. As lit!:o of a financier as any of these self-appointed advisers of Sir . Michael Hicks-Beach. I differ from fhem in having no interests to conserve save those of the British taxpayer. South Africa can well afford to maintain the interest of and to provide a sinking fund for a much larger sum than the .£30,000,000 indicated by the Chancellor of tho Exchequer. The war was-undertaken primarily f.'i the good of South Africa, ml of South Africa will benefit to a greater extent time any section of Great Britain in its result. Tt is but fair then that every part of the sul-continent should contribute towards relieving the home-keeping taxpayer of eorntthing of tho burden of his war tax. BRANDT AND DIAMONDS.

As the money has been expended in South Africa for tho good of South Africans the old cry of "No taxation without representation" docs not apply. Great Britain has merely acted tho pert _of a wealthy capitalist financing South Africd through its troubles, and is now content to recover her outlay by instalments. In these circumstances the anomaly of 1.250,000 gallons of Cape brandy going tax free catches the eye. An Excise duty of 10s per gallon would produce £023.000, a sum sufficient to pay the interest on an Imperial loan at 3 per cent, of £20.000.000,

Diamonds, the most evident luxury the world produces, pay 'no tax in Cape Colony. In tho £3,000,000 worth exported annually thoro lies the. ability to pay another substantial contribution to the war loan.

Should the Imperial Government permit Sunth Africa to possess its own mint —all of the necessary plant already, lies in Pretoria—the profit of 12s on every £1 of silver issued and the gain from the issue of bank-notes would produce another substantial sum for the use of tho Chancellor of the Exchequer. So far as the mines are concerned,, it is perfectly possible to extract a large’ contribution without in any, way injuriously affecting Mr J. E. Robinson’s “goose that lays tho golden egg." TAXABLE MINES.

At uresent there are thirty or fortymines in the Transvaal, which nay dividends amounting annually to i65.0t0.000. All of these companies are registered in the Transvaal, and, in consequence, are immune from income tax duty. That is to say, a legitimate contribution of ,£250,000 may be levied upon the dividends of the gold mines—sufficient to- pay interest on a war loan of .£8,00P,000. From the Boors oho cannot extract money by direct taxation ■without arousing- a sullen opposition that statesmen in charge of a settlement must earnestly desire to- allay. But while, for some time to 1 come, a tax gatherer’s life in the Transvaal would demand a heavy insurance premium, the Boer will submit placidly to any sensibly form of indirect taxation. -

The Boer has no silly preiudiccs concerning the sacred immunity of corn, of bread, of meat. Ho cares nothing for a free breakfast table, and. until his economic knowledge has developed, he can best be reached by a tax on his coffee, his gin, or hia flour.

To tax the Boer’s freedom by imposing market dues upon his waggon as it rumbles into the marker "square is, in the present mood of the populace, to invite insurrection. To' pester the back - country "takhaar” with blue papers is to incite to murder. 11 . | AND THE BOER INDIRECTLY. ; At the moment the Boer is poor, hun-ger-stricken, and desponding. Ho is in more need of Government relief works than of additional taxation. But lie lias a soil that, forbidding as it looks to-day. , is- for the most part seeking only water and culture to yield great crops. j If the Government encourage- the settlement of British, and colonial immigrants, the Boer will have the example of industry and the stimulus of competition to nerve him in his labour. If the Govern- * ment provide him with the means to irrigate his land, and, by the development of railways, to convey his produce to market, the farmers,will speedily become an eminently taxable community; only their taxes must conform to the conditions of tl|o country, and to the prejudies of the people. Downing street cannot impose these taxes. ■ ' ‘ ' ■ . ■' -

If the Boer refugee to advance with the times, be must mortgage his farm, and become a tenant and an. employee where Ijie has been an employer and a landowner, *

i Should Great Britain com© to t ems with i and should Delagoa Bay become 1 a port of entry in com petition with Du!r----i ban and Port Elizabeth, one ton of coal [would be saved on the transport of eagh [ton of goods, as compared with the Natpl I route. A still larger saving would 'bo ! secured as against the Oapo route. From i this saving, a sufficient sum of money [would be obtained to pay interest upon, ! and to provide a sinking fund for, the puri chase uric® of a leasehold of Delagoa Bay j from Portugal. j ! By the developmc-nfc of tlio Delagoa Bay i route, and the drainage of the low country i swamps, a great stretch of fruitful ground j would he thrown open to settlement, arid to the revenue collectors. !

| THE KAFFIE’f? CAPITAL. ' I There is another large taxable communi|y | ! in South Africa. - whose existence has npt; -been called to the attention of Sir Michael j : Hicks-Beach the native races. The j i South African native has little interest in ; heraldic bearings or servants in livery, hut j he displays his surplus wealth in another] !fonn no less suggestive to a Chancellor of ; the Excheanor by the number of his ; wives. A Kaffir invests in wives as j a S Briton does in an old-age insurance fund. From the day ha can afford, three brides he does no work.. The women hew the wood and draw the water; they produce sons and daughters, and each of the latter* represents to the father a certain value in oxen so soon as she shall have attained a marriageable age. , To the missionary mind, polygamy is one of the causes of South African barbarism; to the economist’s it is one of the sources of laziness and a direct cause of the Insufficient supply of native labour to the mines. Impose, then, a gtaduated tax on every polygamous native—one wife free, two .wives a small tax, three wives an increased tax, and so on to the limit of the Kaffir’s wifely wealth. There is much money to be drawn from such a tax, and much material advantage to the country. THE DTTLANDER’S BURDEN. Should Great Britain extend to South Africa its credit, there is in these suggested means the capacity to pay the interest on a loan, not of .£30.000,000. hut of £100,000,000 —a taxation that would not | press unduly on any section of the community. Bv contributing only a tax upon his dividends, the TJitlandcr may appear to escape Ms burdens lightly, bnt resident ITitlanders. will in the future have to pay house taxes, income taxes, mining tares, land taxes and all the multitudinous contributions of a properly governed State. ] It will no longer be possible for Mr Charles Leonard to say he only paid a direct tax*of £l5O on an annual income of £20,000. > For the provision of a sinking fund, the Government has the assets of the Trans-' vaal Government to fall hack upon—its 10 per cent share in the Netherlands Railway Company, its 4000 farms of 3000 acres ; each, its share in concessions and of bew- ! aarplaatsen rights, valued at any sum from j £20,000.000 to £80,000,000. - From : these , the reuavment of a much larger.sum than even the'South African war loan'can easily be financed.' , - ,: j Ido not nretend to propound a carefully designed scheme: l am ebntcnttb expose a ; few undoubted source® of Imperial revenue j hitherto untapped in South Africa. I