THE TAX ON BREAD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7027, 15 January 1910, Page 5

THE TAX ON BREAD

—_ 1 ■■. We cannot pretand to oven guess •whether the people who have "shown that the King'has black broad in every palace and on every ■Royal yacht" imagine that this delightfully enobbiah piece oi lint'olligence will dispose of the British elector's objection jto having his food supplies subjected 'to taxation, hut it really looks as if ithis -were so. Why else Should it be! (put. forward? At this distance, of toourse, it is impossible to see the relevancy between the colour of an accidental loaf in the King's larder and the supply in the cottager 1s cupboard. Alt any rate it is permissible to doubt the effectiveness of a suggestion that Royalty's indulgence in a whimsical fancy should mako the averago British family contemplate a diet of black bread with equanimity. The point just now, however, is not whether black bread which is good for a Prince to look at is good for a commoner to cat, but .whether taxes on

Jood aro justifiable as an alternative to taxes on wealth. According to Mr Balfour they .are. Indeed, ho is telling tho electors that a duty on corn w'll diminish the price of bread. Wo have not been ablo to follow tho food-tax campaign very clearly hitherto owing to the nebulous terms in which it has been expounded and the contradictions, denials and qualifications which Jiavo characterised its evolution from "more work" to "more revenue." But at last we have from 3l'r Balfour a definite statement which tho people in Xew Zealand cam examine for themselves. We know what taxation of corn is in actual practice. Wheat and flour imported to the Dominion in taxed and tlho result of experience in that direction is this—that no man who desired not to be laughed at as a humbug would make to a> New Zealand audience such an assertion as the one wo yesterday heard of Mr Balfour making to the eledboils at York. Taxation of wheat and flour imported tio New Zealand does two things—it Tivakes tho loaf dearer a,nd gives the miller a bonus on every ton of flour ho grinds. Use of tho argument that commodities are cheapened by taxing thorn • implies disregard of the public intelligence and of thia known results of such experiments in every country where they have been tried.