Taxing Bondholders.

Otago Witness, Issue 1952, 23 July 1891, Page 12

Taxing Bondholders.

TO THE EDITOB.

SIR,— In "The Week "of July 9 you criticise Blr G. Grey's remarks on the tsixiug of bondholders, and as an illustration of the dishonesty of such a tax being imposed upon them, you put me and Mr Oxtail, my butcher, upon a parallel. Now, as far as I can see the two sides are not to be compared. On the one hand, suppose I am a money-lender or tradesman in New Zealand. lam taxed already, so is Mr Oxtail, for the working of things in general in the country from which we derive our subsistence, and certainly it would be blackmailing Mr Oxtail for me to do as you say. Blackmailing, as I take it, means the demanding of something of value, for whioh you have given no equivalent. But suppose that I " owned " the country and governed it in the usual way, is it not right that tbe butcher and all who subsist wholly or partially by the country should pay their equal portion of taxes to defray the working expenses of tbe same? And if the said bondholders should feel aggrieved at an unforeseen law coming into force I should think they would be entirely wrong, as they should look on if as a lawthat they hava unjustly escaped up to the pre«ent, and thank their lucky etars and their late nurses m Parliament that they have escaped so long. How many unforeseen laws do we impose upon ourselves when we see that it is right and just and the proper thing to flo ; and why not the money-lenderß? Is it because they probably live in Encland, as so many of the Irish landowners do, they or their agents merely coming over at termb to collect their pound of flesh ? Surely not.— l am, &0. , Rtkky Beb Helps to Kbhp Its Qvbbs.

Winton, July 10.

[Our correspondent misses the point of the argument against the proposal to tax foreign bondholders. The question is simply whether one party to a contract has a right to vary the terms of that contract without consulting the other party. Surely he will admit that it is necessary for the colony to keep faith and to pay the rate of interest agreed upon ; but if this is done how would it be possible to collect a tax levied on people resident outside the jurisdiction of the colonial authorities?— Ed]