THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." DUNDEIN, TUESDAY, OCTOVER 3.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1171, 3 October 1865, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." DUNDEIN, TUESDAY, OCTOVER 3.

Assdming that the General Assembly will revise the tariff this session, it is highly desirable that it should be done on principles that reason and experience commend as sound and practical. . The. history of taxation abounds with examples and warnings. There is not a country in the old world that has not radopted the plan of collecting duties on goods imported, and although in, most instances their practide has -been empyrical, and in. many de-of,,the.end-proposed to be at-tained,-so slow are Governments and mankind tolearn wisdom from the past, that only in a few of the most enlightened nations have errors been abandoned and fi-cal truth recognised. •It is the nature of long-continued error to perpetuate itself, and especially in political and social economics. There are many reasons for thi3, but chiefly that most of the mistakes in those sciences arise from the speciousness with which they are put forward by their advocates. It'was thus with the imposition of duties.on corn in Great Britain. There was a general notion^ that' if England could produce mil the "corn necessary to feed her people, she would be independent of foreign nations, and "richer^ because the capital would not leave th<S ( .country to purchase food. For a century, this theory WC3 advocated by distinguished statesmen, and acquiesced in by merchants and trades-' men of all classes;- and so interworen was it with the * reasonings and apparent interests t <#! ;other 'tariff ""Sdi'sidcitti't^ \V.sabr'rf I«J=»W iswai'la'J i '

was baaed upon, excluding, as much as possible, ''ertrj^' .■foreign, productioii that

CQald.beigjjown,or nianuCactared attiomei excepting at auch prtces as would compensate for any disadvantages that England might be aupposed lo labor undlr tending to preTebt ita i being'produced there. It never seemed, to<.;be ,suspected :by the

statesmen of. those days, that England's

labor and capital might be more profitably employed, if devoted to pursuits enabling them to purchase the cheaper goods of neighboring 'countries.'' The priuciple was not recognised, that if goods from abroad could be brought into consumption at half or two thuds of the labor necessary to produce them at home, the. country would £ ... :.. ~ , -~ ' vrr«-«^»,, be richer by the value of the difference. For the joint purposes, therexore of a fancied protection to industry, and for revenae, the Statute book was loaded with prohibitions; and the, tariff was complicated by laying excessive duties on an immense number of articles.* At length the truth became suspected. The searching investigations of patient and talented men demonstrated the folly of it . . , , . „ „ ft* the course that had. been followed; but years of labor were rcq-nrcd before the country was prepared to receive those great truths, which the experience of the last few yeara has proved to be a sound basis on which to build a nation's prosperity. And there is great reason fre quently to * refer to these fundamental principles, for unfortunately, there is a tendency iv all newly settled countries, to reproduce the exploded errors of that period, In the United States a vicious tariff, in combination with other causes, gave rise to the disastrous war jnat brought to a close. In New Sout'i Wales, an attempt has been made to introduce a prohibitory tariff, and in Victoria, from the same cause the dead lock has laken piace. It is , . ' „ i ~ i , j. plain, therefore, that there .3 dwger lest New Zealand whould be affected with a like contagion, and in the revision of the

tariff should endeavor to combine two objects whteh cannot possibly be simultaneously attained—(he collection of a revenue by the imposition of " duties on imports, and the encouragement of local

manufactures, by means of the same machinery. That the two objects cannot be simultaneously attained is obviou3 from the consideration, that if the local industry prosper, the duty on imports and consequently the revenue niU3t cease. For it. is implied in the idea of manufactures being established, that they have shut imported goodsl out of the market; and if there are no imports there is no revenne. It is necessary .therefore that a choice should be -made of an object in revising the tariff, and duties imposeed accordingly. In thi3 colony revenue is needed, and already the Government ha» reason: to believe they have-mistaken their way. Long since it was asserted as a political paradox, that in taxation, two and two dp.not make four. That is, by doubling the duty on any article of consumption, the revenue derived :from it will not be proportionately increased.; There may be two reasons for this. First—:there is anin?_ ducemeut to evade the duty, and to smuggle the goods >into the country. Even in England, guarded by revenue cutters, and an army of revenue officers round her coasts, abundant evidence was given before successive committees of the House of Commons, to show that if the duty

exceeded ten per cent, on the value of the article ou which it was levied, there was BufSsient margin of profit to cover the ris-k of smuggling. And if such

was the experience of Britain, with every harbor and nook, and the mouth of fcvery creek, guarded, how much less risk of detection is there here, where t're population is sparse, and coves and sheltered-bays abound with forest fastnesses, in wiyich.. pursuit could be evaded? Then, secoadly, it is found that tax-payers have, only a certain amount of' money to expend on articles of consumpsion, and if the price rises, the quantiiy used is curtailed, so as to fall within that limit of coat..'., Qn both these grounds, therefore,' a high""rate".'pf""duty tends to. produce a less proportionate revenue than a lower one ; andtothest* two causes no dpnb£ it is owing that the Colonial Treasurer has not received the amount of Customs duties that he calculated would accrue from the addition made to the tariff last session. The Chamber of Commerce took a sound view when they passed:the resolution that the articles"should be few on which import duties were levied. ■■ Nothing can be more annoying to trade than a cumbrous tariff—the duty: on most of the articles enhumeratcd in which will not pay the cost of collecting. The principle vvhieh ought to guide every statesman in laying on im-port-duties should be to selec' some few articles of general consumption, which are not—or 'betters)ill,; which cannot bef-pro-ducedia the Colony. From these last alone can he look fora permanent revenue. To. the consumption of these, every facility should be given by enabling importers \6 sell them,., at such a i ate an to bring them within the reach of every consumer. . From the com* para lively easy circumstances of the Colonists, compared with the same class at home,/there may not be the com^ pensation of increased consumption in proportion to the decrease of price.; But in every country, high prices, no matter by what cause" induced, vtend to cteck consunaption. That articles "used in the " development'qf Brapches of " local industry .should be excluded as j ;" mucb;-M possible": from1 taxation,^is a ' - ' •• - .ueirnail i'

a protective.jpoljcj^and the adoption of it would give that facility for the prosttcntion; of art and Manufactures; which *fj4* ten<* to place them upon a Boiind aridj solid basia. 7 When the revised tari^ia" niade public, we trust that the Chamber of Commerce.,will",give, such earnest jattention to its' jiravisions as the prosperity of.the Colony demands at their Lauds.