The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 31 August 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1880.

The sorrowing taxpayers of this Colony will be glad to learn that the delays that have already occurred in reference to the Property Tax schedules are to be supplemented by yet another term of grace. In reply to a query from us, Mr. Sperry, the Property" Tax Commissioner, has wired as follows " Time extended to 30th September. New schedules will probably be issued." This means that there is a likelihood that the original schedules, so " fearfully and wonderfully made." are to be discarded. Everybody i thought that they would come to some such untimely find. But there was much l uncertainty about all legislation in con- | nection with the ta*. The Ministryweak when threatened with unpopularity which might end in their political extinction —consented to make an alteration which, whilst it was calculated to please 1 the people, would actually be ft relief to the particular class for whom they so faithfully legislate. The inclusion of clothing, furniture, jewellery, &c., would not have affected the poorer classes of the Colony. The people who live m large houses would have felt it; and when Major Atkinson brought d£>wn his amendments, the whole Hou3e, with ths exception of a few faithful and blind followers i of the Government, realised this, and objected, and that successfully, to this additional attempt to remove a share of the burthen of the tax from the shoulders of the rich to those of the already overweighted poor. It was argued, even by some of the Government's warmest supporters, that if the Colonial Treasurer found it po33ible, in consequence of the reductions effected in the estimates, to liberalise the property tax at all, his first care should be to relieve farm stock, machinery, and stocbs-in-trade from taxation. The Colonial Treasurer's amendments were, therefore, rejected. We think that this did not cause him mucn : grief. He had done all he could for his friends, and no man could have done i more. He fia3 not, therefore, forfeited their friendship, whilst he will not be called upon to make any pecuniary sacrifice —a very important consideration with Treasurers of the Atkinson class. But a simplified schedule was included in the amendments, and this was rejected with ! the rest. This caused general re-<n-et. The complex and mysterious schedule of the original Act is a thing that "no fellah can understand." A volume was written by a clever, clear-headed official, wifch the object of explaining this schedule, but he only laid bare its difficulties, and the work was so confounding in explanations that all connection with it was .disowned by the very Ministers who authorised its publication. Such a schedule must be got rid of if the whole fabric of the property tax was not to come to griet, and. the Treasurer, therefore, introduced a simplification, which bus been passed by Parliament. This has beea anticipated by taxpayers, who have watched sf|th peculiar anxiety the changeful legislation f)t Parliament, lest peradventure, through some fortuitous circumstance, the stringent fissal policy of the Government might be somewhat relaxed. No such luck, however. But, if we have nothing else, we have a simple schedule. Taxpayers will not now be necessitated to sit lip nights, and days studying inexplicable forms, like the American humorist, with their heads swathed in wet cloths to counteract the effects of over study. We have all waited, in anxiety ftor the simple schedules, many of ns, in despair, haying con-; signed the original ones to the flames. It appears that the Government have been somewhat neglectful in not notifying, immediately they were in a position to do so, that new schedules •vould be issued. Why were new schedules .considered necessary ? Because it was found that people could not understand the old ones, and it would not only have been unjust to make them suffer for their ignorance, but the retention of such schedules would have increased the expense and difficulty of collecting the tax. We are glad to be in a position to announce that the time for the sending in of the filled-in schedules has been extended to the 3Gth of September. The Government made a mistake in issuin" the original ones ; but the only way out of the difficulty is to treat them as waste paper, issue new ones, and extend the time, a3 has been dons. Had the Government only announced to their Assessors the changes that they had made instead of leaving taxpayers entirely in the dark as to whether or not omission to send in the old forms would be visited with the penalties of the law, they would have acted with proper courtesy and consideration. -