THE TARIFF.

Otago Witness, Issue 930, 25 September 1869, Page 2

THE TARIFF.

Two or thfeei yeats ago the' Tariff bf'the' co'l'c-riy was constantly under dis'cussibni aridj questions connected With its amendment' and "simplification ' were .staple subjects with business men, Chambers of Commence, an 3 political orators. Of late; the idea that the Tariff can be ; modified with advantage^ before the happy day arrives when a general reduction of Customs duties shall have' become practicable, seems 1 to have been abandoned. Whether from resignation to our fate, or from despair of being able to escape from it, we puffer without murmur' one of the most oppressive, ill-digestfed, and complicated tariffs that has ever been invented. We are sure that if the figures brought together by the RegistrarGeneral, in the Statistical Tables relating to .Revenue, were carefully studied, there ' would be an end of this patient submission. The tables published in advance of the annual volume, of which we gave some notice in a recent issue, include detailed statements of the Customs Revenue collected during 1868. In these the real character of the Tariff is exposed to view, and its vexatious and perplexing complexity is clearly shown. In reading the Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, these features nre apt to be lost sight of, in consequence of the alphabetical arrangement which has been there adopted. A tedious analysis must be performed before any clear idea of the number of different duties and the frivolous character of a large majority of these imposts, can be obtained from the Act itself. The Registrar, in the table already spoken of, has given us some of the results of such an analysis. No one, we think, can examine his detailed Statement of Customs Revenue without arriving at the conclusion that the present Tariff is a grossly absurd one — that no good end is attained by its complexity and all-embracing grasp, and that an immense simplification of it might be made without in any way interfering with the total amount of revenue collected through the diatoms. Less than twenty years ago the Customs Revenue raised in the colonies of this group was obtained by the taxation of a very small number of articles. South Australia exhibited an exception to the rule, but elsewhere, so far as we are awaro, wine, beer, and spirits, tea, coffee, and sugar, tobacco, and one or two other articles, were the only imports taxed. No tariffs could have been less oppressive in their incidence, or could have given leas trouble, both to those who pay, and those who collect the duties. New Zealand has not beea alone in departing from this commendable simplicity, but it has certainly gone farther than any other colony from tho true typo of a sensible tariff. What havo we now in place of these eiinple mid effective arrangements 1 Besides tho special duties on the articles we havo just enumorated and those on arras and ammunition, tho Registrar's analytical tnblo exhibits eighteen other seta of duties imposed by measurement, weight, or ad valorem. There nre eight, different rates of measurement duty. Ou some goods the duty is only threcponco per cubic foot, on others sixpence, and ho on increasing by sixponoea until it roaches throe shillings, from which thoro is a sudden jump to five shilling*. So also thoro ure eight different rate? of duty levied by weight. We discriminate, or pretend to do so, very carefully as to tho relative taxable quality of goods, A shilling per owt. is enough for this, two shillings for that, two and aixponoo— three shillings — four dulling?, for others j and then, by a rtno gradation, we paw from four shillings nor owt. to a halfpenny nor lb. From this point there is a hop and a skip to a penny and throe* penoe per pound. Next como two

syielafog ; between ' theiii « v lfi§i '»f6 fn^fl "|u^r|er per cent, of the whwelr^^i^ TißEdw many ' consciences silenced, how many false declaiatioiili "made? !>6f6ve r 'tWii eigHteen^'llit^|l^otf i andpiniriety pounds) 1 ' was 'paid intp^tn*^ Treasury.,!, ," And, this is v ,»,not, ..all. After going" through this long series, of' ! duties,' , the ' reader r who . has had no . practical acquaintance with the ] ' Tariff /will be \ asjtonished^, to fiind another' heading- of i Duties not specified above.' All this minuteness] of detail in'duties by< weight and' duties 1 by measurement, .does not include "half theicontents'of the Tariff. Therd'is a special' duty; on wooden buckets and another on playing cards. Carriage w heels, doors, window sashes, and mantelpieces, have each had th 6 separate' consideration! of 'Parliament, and ' have, distinct duties <of their own imposed' upon them. Hops fall under the heading of a pe'niriy per lb. duty, but malt has a separate recognition, and is let down gently at sixpence per bushel. Posts andi palings, rails and laths, have each a distinct and different duty to pay, but by 'some strange oversight a joist andi a 'flooring board come in together at an uniform rate. Tar and spirits of tar, 1 ; vinegar, and varnish, 1 and half a score of other insignificant items of import, have each their distinctive rate of duty. If oil be in a bottle, it pays one rate, but if in a drum another. Filled with seme fanciful idea of equalising the incidence of duties upon the different classes of goods*' and of bringing them as nearly to the character of ad valorem duties as, with fixed rates, was possible, the framers of the Tariff appear to have been utterly reckless of everything else. No doubt their work was made considerably worse when the Tariff Act was in Committee. And what has been the result of all this excessively careful legislation ? The greater part of the revenue is still raised by the duties on the articles which we first enumerated. A quite practicable increase of duty upon these few items would return as large a revenue as is at present collected • and all the hundred varieties of goods that we now tax might once more be admitted free. Considerably more than half the Customs revenue is in fact raised on spirits and tobacco, and nearly eighty per cent, of the whole arises from the ' duties on those articles of general consumption, with the taxation of which Colonial Governments were, until a comparatively recent period, content. ' No one who has any practical acquaintance with the working of the present i system will, we think, be found willing i to defend the vast array of duties ■ by which the remaining twenty per ; cent, of the revenue is gathered in. i We have no means of estimating the 1 extra coat of collection which a tariff { like oura involves, but it must bo very t considerable. It is a slight matter, 1 however, compared with the expense i and trouble to which the importer is ] put. It should be carefully borne in < mind when this view of the matter is i considered, that it is not only, nor 1 even chiefly, the importer who is < concerned. It is the consumer s who really pays for these things, \ and generally threefold or fourfold. la i the ordinary state of things every t expenao that falls upon goods in their v transit from the producer to the con- v suraer adds to the price which the c latter has to pay ; and upon the S mount of every such expense a per- ti centage of intorqat and profit in added w by each trador through whoso hands tho n merchandise has to pass before it a< reaches its ultin\ato destination. If n this wore a matter in which merchants b wore solely concernod, we should pro- w babiy havo loft it to them to discover A where thoir own interests Ho aud how tl absurd tho nystom is to which they submit ir ao'patiently. Such , however, h not tho case gi — it ia tho whole community thatsuflfors, v; Tf any doubts existed before experience oi of the present Tariff had boon obtained tl as to what ibs results would be, they ol must now be dissipated. If any ono ia ol still sceptical wo commend him to a w caroful examination of tho Registrar's gi Tables. Lot us hone that anothor la eosaion of Assembly will not be allowed ai to paaa without tome effort being made w to eliminate from our fiscal qystem ot