THE OTAGO WITNESS. THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1957, 27 August 1891, Page 23

THE OTAGO WITNESS.

THE WEEK.

WITH WHICH IS INCOBPOBATED THH SOUTHERN MBBCUBY. {THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1891.)

" Nunqtuun alind natnra, allnS wplentla dlxit."— Juvbhia. v Goad nature *n& good sense malt «TW loin." • Pom.

The denial just published of the existence of any Franco-Russian treaty The m ay be, and probably is, European technically correct; but so cbesißowa. also is the denial technically

correct of the virtual participation of England in the Triple Alliance. In both cases whatever the actual parchments or seals, involved, the understanding is clear enough, while at the same time the denial is true enough. It is certainly not correct to say, as certain French newspapers, afflicted with Anglophobia have been loudly declaring, that the Triple Alliance "would be more correctly called the Quadruple"; neither is it a fact that a separate treaty of alliance between England and Italy exists ; least of all can the statement of the Freeman's Journal be defended to the effect that England is the gaoler for Germany of the annexed provinces Alsace and Lorraine. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that England would take any part whatever in such military operations on the Continent as are generally supposed to be most probable in the event of the peace being broken at all. Collating the communications made to the British and Italian Parliaments by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, and applying to them the authoritative analyses of the position supplied by the leading journals, it is tolerably clear that the extent to which England is involved with the arrangements of the Central Powers is limited to a compact to interfere in any attempt by France to disturb the statm quo in the Mediterranean by an attack on the Italian fleet. It will not cost a shilling of English money or a drop of Englfsh blood if France marches her armies across the Alps or sets out on a second military promenade " a Berlin " ; but if the freedom of the Mediterranean or our interests therein are threatened by any naval demonstration against Italy's maritime force, England will, for the protection of her own, and not for the defence of the Central Monarcbiesjbarthe way. Of course it is not to be denied that recent events have drawn the English people more and more towards the allied powers, while Russian policy in the East and French obstruction in Egypt have maintained their normally irritating aspect; bnt there is nothing in this to entangle us in an offensive alliance. It would thus be almost equally truthful to describe the British connection with the Central Powers as that of a neutra', or as that of a conditional ally ; but it could not be correct to call England a member of the Alliance, seeing that in one contingency only, out of the many which might govern the next war, would she ever be actively involved, Probably the real understanding

between France and Russia, even at the stage which it has at present attained, is of a much more wholesale character.

The Taxation Bill has no*v passed the House of Eepreaentatives, and it Th 6 tnay be taken for granted Taxation Bin. that it will shortly receive

the Governor's assent with* out any very material alteration. The history of the Government policy has been in its way unique. Hitherto, it has always been Parliament itself that has been the check on an incompetent, extravagant, or classlegislating Ministry. A Government, it has been usual to consider, may indulge in many sins; but the one thing that Parliaments never would stand was that a Government should be ignorant of the principles upon which it undertook to legislate,' and should flounder and blunder into an ultimate policy through dictation from without rather than through settled conviction within the Cabinet. A Ministry's troubles, in fact, began when it had to formulate a policy and announce it to Parliament as the policy which Parliament must accept, or find itself other Ministers. No such state of affairs has embarrassed the present Government. Very early in thesession they found that by adopting a pliant attitnde towards a particular class, accepting everything dictated to it by that class and rejecting everything suggested by every other class, they could at once acquire and maintain a majority which would effect the one object of keeping them in office as salaried figureheads. On these terms the Ministry was not only willing but eager to go to work ; and the result has been that the ability and debating power of the House, which is in a vastly preponderating degree on the side of the present Opposition, has been simply wasted. The one principal condition apparently exacted of the Ministry by its supporters was that all its legislation should be directed against employers of labour, and towards the ultimate placing of the whole taxation of the country on the shoulders of the country settler. That being understood, there was no difficulty in carrying anything whatever. Discussion, the teachings of experience, the inculcation of justice, the calling to mind of the principles of commerce, or, indeed, the principles of anything else, were alike cut of place in such | alcompact. ' Tne Labour party, which sends the Ministers scuttling hither and thither fetching aad carrying new measures of oppression for its amusement, cares for none of these things.

It has neither leisure nor inclination to bother itself with them. Hence the Government had only to keep back their Taxation Bjill nntil their masters had said their say in the financial debate, then construct it according to orders in a few hours and send its flying across the harbour to Lowry Bay for the Governor's signature, and the thing was done. There was no further trouble. It is an enviable position for a Ministry to be in, provided that such trifles as independence, self-respect, and a regard for the interests of the country itself do not appear to Ministers to be worth naming in comparison with the possession of place and power. '

Since, however, the new system of taxation

is now virtually established

city irtonr it is not worth while to con. Tonm tinue to state the plain truth

conntry settler, about it. That will become amply apparent as soon as the system comes into operation. We honestly believe that if the Government had I been forced to name, say, the month of Oci tober next for the first visit of their two sets of taxgatherers — the income tax and the land tax man — they would have hesitated to take the risk of bringing down their policy at all. They count, as does the class they serve, upon riveting the chains so closely before the time for actual punishment comes round that the struggles of the victims will be of little avail. For^instance, the farmers have above all things to be hoodwinked for a time, until they are fairly within the net and unable to fight through its meshes. That was,a^. first requisite of Government under orders of Labour; for it would have been serious bad the farmers been permitted to see the truth, or to feel at once the lash that is meant to be laid upon their backs. They might have strongly objeoted. As it is, by ingeniously leading the crusade against the occupiers of land — professedly against large landowners only, in the first instance — this being an unpopular class, and one which, as a large employer of labour, is peculiarily detestable to Labour — it is hoped to conceal from the farmers for a time that land in the future is to bear the whole taxation of the country.

It was openly avowed in the debate by the leading members of the Labour party, including the Premier himself, that it was intended very soon to "go further," and among other things to reduce the Customs taxation on articles used by the working'man. It was further avowed that the revenue so lost was to be made up by land — that Jthe Government was, in fact, " working in the direction of a single tax — the tax on land." It was admitted — nay, it was eagerly claimed — that by that time there will be no large estates to tax ; and it is perfectly well known that owners everywhere are preparing to subdivide their estates among the persons who have hitherto owned in common, a process which the Government profess to desire. It is easy to see that the result of all this will be that the small farmer will pay the country's taxes when the full scheme of the Labour party is worked out, and it is abun» dantly evident from the speeches of the Ministers that they know it too, for they havenot always succeeded, as they hoped they had, in using language which gave the necessary assurances to the Labour "party without letting the truth become plainly apparent to any farmer who chose to read between the lines.

We have told the troth from the first about the taxation proposals, as did also those members who scorn to stand trembling like schoolboys before the city unions, as Ministers are not ashamed to do. So far as the " bursting-up " part of the policy is concerned, its dishonourable nature and its inconceivable stupidity are the worst features of it, and like other acts of dishonesty and stupidity it may have some advantages peculiar to itself. But the ingenious way in which the ignorance of the small settler is being presumed upon by the Ministry and

the Labour party in their joint schemes seems to us to possess no redeeming element whatever ; and we have not the slightest shadow of doubt that time will justify the view we have consistently taken of it>

As regards the income tax, this part of the Government scheme is on a Tho somewhat different footing. income Tax. The question of whether or not

an income tax is a fair and desirable form of tax and adaptable to New Zealand circumstances is a reasonable matter Qf debate. We are inclined to think its advantages very considerable and its drawbacks, on the whole, more considerable still. If it had been proposed to apply it over the whole population instead of singling out the occupiers of land alone as the one class to pay grinding taxation whether they make any income out of their properties or not, there would have been still less to say against it. Moreover, we are disposed to believe that if the graduated system of taxation is to be imposed at all — though we consider such a system should be scouted as essentially a tax on thrift, industry, and success— it would be less unjust as applied to incomes than as applied to land. In the former case, there would at least be the certainty that the subject of the graduation process would not be robbed by the State of all he possesses ; in the latter, the certainty is in many cases exactly the opposite way. Be that as it may, it is not at present intended to introduce the graduated tax on incomes, though there is no saying how soon unionist government by means cf dummy Ministers may require that to be done also.

The blot upon the income tax scheme as evolved by the Government is that it has been used as a means of shelter for banks aud loan companies from the taxation they would equitably have had to pay under the land tax division of the bill. Nothing has been so conspicuous throughout the whole of the financial debates as this determination of the Government to provide soft cushions for these speciaj proteges of theirs, to protect them in every possible way from the hard knocks which the taxation scheme deals out to those who have borrowed money from them. What the secret influences are which made the Government almost as subservient to these special institutions as if they had been affiliated to the Maritime Council it is not for us to say, even if we knew them all ; and we do not pretend to know them all, though some are patent enough to all observers. The fact, however, remains that shelter for these institutions is provided by bringing them under the income tax instead of the land tax ; while private mortgagees, who of course are without the special and mysterious influence over the Government which banks and loan companies possess, are left under the land tax section. It is true that even then private money-lenders escape their fair share as compared with the mortgagor; but in comparison with banks and loan companies they are treated with contemptuous harshness. The provision which taxes absentee bondholders, or rather reduces the interest which their colonial clients are under engagement to pay them, is dishonest, and it would pay the colony to forego the revenue it will get in this way ten times over rather than put such a provision on its recoids. Ac regards the intolerably inquisitorial nature of the income tax generally it is useless to speak now ; we shall have plenty of occasion to do that when the inevitable universal howl follows the first visit of the tax-gatherer himself.

The present House appears to govern its proceedings by the simple and a pleasing rule that you ought "Friendly never to pass any measure Bin." whatever without first seeing

that it hurts somebody not hitherto suspected of having done or intended anything wrong. We are not now referring especially to the taxation proposals, of which we have already said enough, but to the various Labour Bills of which one hears so much, and to the half-dozen other measures in which the majority take a special interest. Prominent among these is the Friendly Societies' Bill, the reception of which peculiarly indicates how absurd is the title of the "Labour party" which the unionist representatives have conferred upon themselves. The plain fact is that they do not represent labour at all — they represent unionism, which comprises within its ranks only a fraction of the real labourers of the country.

It has been reserved for the so-called representatives of labour to demonstrate in a practical form their hatred of all labourers who have not surrendered themselves to the unions. Not content with their loudlyvaunted attempts a few months ago to reduce these free workmen to submission by means of starvation, not content with applauding the proceedings of Australian unions for which even starvation was too slow a process to effect their revenge, and which resorted to swifter and surer methods of oppression and intimidation, the unionists have now, by their promotion of this degrading bill, declared that not only shall a non-unionist not live himself, but he shall not be permitted to make provision in bis own way for the maintenance of his wife and children after his death. We doubt if any more paltry and disgraceful measure than this was ever submitted to a legislature ; and we cannot call to mind that the friendly societies, usually excellent organisations, have ever before stooped so low as when in the interests of their revenues they lent a helping hand to a movement which they must have known perfectly well was initiated and promoted from motives even meaner. They should have refused indignantly to accept pecuniary profit-con-veyed to them in so ignoble a way.

The Hon. Mr Cadman is a member of the

Ministry about whom very spios little is known down here, and tueir He owes his present position Abettors. largely to accident, bis name never having attracted attention during his former service in Parliament. If it had not been necessary to have an Auckland member of the Ministry, and if Auckland had not chosen to send to Wellingson an almost entirely new batch of members, the hon. gentleman who now holds the portfolio of Native Minister would ap-

parently have continued in the humble sphere which until lately was found to adapt itself so excellently to his political characteristics. Accident, however, which played so large a part in the establishment of the Ministry as a whole, bestowed singular blessings upon Mr Cadman, even to the extent of removing wholly out of his path, in the person of the already forgotten Mr Goldie, the rival whose claims at one time seemed to be about to prevail in spite of the fact that they were never pushed.

The Hon. Mr Cadman, so far as we can remember, has only made three formal appearances before the House in the capacity of a Minister since that dignity sweetly wound itself about his form. The first was when he moved the Counties Amendment Bill — in what Ministerial capacity the hon. gentleman becomes the tutelary deity of local bodies we are not aware — which was received by the Government supporters with the liveliest demonstrations of amazement, and has since, it is understood, been incontinently dropped. The second was when, in response to the usual order from the gentlemen who represent labour, he actually consented to supersede Mr W. Laurence Simpson — a gentleman in whom every class of the community has the utmost confidence— as the conductor of an independent inquiry, and to appoint another gentleman (equally competent and trustworthy, we are glad to say, in mitigation of the Minister's weakness and pliancy) to see fair play. Neither of these two performances is exactly calculated to recommend Mr Cadman to notice as being any improvement on his colleagues.

But in his third appearance in a Ministerial capacity he has been something a good deal worse than merely weak and foolish. Nothing could excuse a person of respectability, still less of hugh responsibility, consenting to take notice for a moment of such a question as Mr Fish's, based as it avowedly was on the report of a wretohed person who was earning the wages of infamy by skulking behind a railway seat with a pocket book, and taking down the conversations of his fellow-travellers for sale to his still more wretched employer. That this kind of thing should be condoned, that inquiries based upon such odious eaves-dropping shonld be answered from the Ministerial Bench not only without scorn but with studied seriousness, and that it should be reserved for private members to interfere to save the House from the dishonour of involving itself by condonation in the stealthy cunning of a conspiracy of common spies — these are things that would have been incredible until six months ago. We can only trust that the time may soon come when they will be again impossible.

It is odd to find that the one single class

in the community outside the The sacred fold who are in favour Petticoat with the majority of the prep/irty. sent House are the women of the land. We wish the special objects of the dominant party's care were always as deservable members of the community as these are ; still there is a time for everything, and this female legislation is being run to ridiculous lengths just when everybody's minds are largely occupied with matters much more urgently important, It only required a careless interjection in favour of female lawyers the other ..night — a totally new idea, at any rate outside the facetias columns of weekly newspapers — to secure the acceptance by the mover, and the support of the promoters, of the particular bill then in hand. We do not say that there is anything very dreadful in the notion ; but that it should be accepted then and there as a matter of course, without debate and without even thought, is a serious reflection on the intelligence and practical capacity of the House.

Our women will be advanced by "leaps and bounds " by the present House, if they do not themselves intervene to prevent these extravagant frivolities. Byron uttered a word of warning on this point— he certainly cannot be accused of thinking too little of women — which may be worth transcribing as possibly calculated to appeal more directly to the petticoatist section of the House than the sober teachings of caution and common sense. We have very little doubt that in some quarters the stanza will be considered very dreadful; but as the person who wrote it is outside the operation of the fashionable legislation— which might otherwise be recommitted so as to " reach " him, and make him sorry he spoke — we will run the risk of printing it : — 'lis pity learned virgins ever wed With persons of no sort of education, Or gentlemen who, though welt-born and bred, Grow tired of scientific conversation. I don't choose to say much upon this head ; I'm a plain man, and In a tingle station ; But oh! ye lordi of ladles intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not benpeck'd you all?