There is a Limit.

Southland Times, Issue 10056, 5 January 1889, Page 3

There is a Limit.

. •■• " ; r ; ; (Evening Star)i Some politicians, and those in a position to give e9ect to their opinions, -would seem under the impression that the limit of taxation ijj that which ■'•Parliament' chooses to impose ; in other words, that the contributory powers of "the people are practically infinite. Certamly, if Sir Edward Stafford was right when he said that taxation was "the. test of civilisation," New Zealand is a- very "• highly civilised country indeed. What with general . and local imposts, taxation direct and indirect, the colonist, especially if he be a ratepayer, has much to d.o to stagger along under his burthens,, ahd considering all circumstauces, is Certainly unduly weighted. ' ' It' is not to our present purpose to consider how this "Has.cpnie about; put. we may, state,, broadly, one ; prihcip'al reason^ -namely, that whilst the essence of tlie Public Works policy was immigration, this has ,-..been_. .deliberately excised from the policy of the colony. Consequently^ upon a small population, jwith sparsely occupied lands, and natural resources but fpartially developed, there has been thrown thercost; and charges of an extensive, railway system and of ,the . equipment on a co-ordinate scale of the various Government services. « Had 'the original scheme of Sir Julius Vogel ' beeh'Vcarried out, the' iouhtry would- have 'been peopled;and the interior settled contemporaneously with tile ! ' construction of the railways. Like Action, however, Sir Julius >was devoured : by hisown dogs, and the Public. Works and Immigration policy degenerated in operation to unseemly struggles year after year forthe spoiL Ministries rose and fell on -questions of loan expenditure, ..; or,'.maintained themselves in office by its judicious manipulation. Enormous sums were frittered awaylito secure command of the House', with the eventual result that the interest on cost : ofi construction " far exceeds what the railway lines really required can fairly- bear. The annual' charges" have growri and grown, but there has .been no corresponding increase in the tax-paying element. vTheadininistra-' tion of the Stout- Vogel Government — per-haps/fortunately—-ibrought matters to a crisis. Deficit piled on deficit threatened a financial overwhelming : it became jiecessary to pull: up short ; but even the stringent economies of the present Ministry were ineffectual to square accounts and bring the V expenditure within the income, so ■ large have become the permanent charges and appropriations. The Treasurer, finding himself still to the bad,' and apparently deeming it hopeless to pro-, pose radical reform .of the whole machinery of -government, yielded^ himself to the old fallacy that the public pocket is of unfathomable depth and imposed additional taxation, both direct and indirect. We ventured to predictat the time that the high tariff of 1888 would hardly realise anticipations in the way of revenua, and this from the latest returns, which now cover three quarters of the financial year, has turned out to be the case. The estimate of the receipts from the Customs may possibly, although this hardly . seems probable, be realised "f "but the effect of raising so materiallyi the duties upon articles of common use and consumption has been to restrict in other directions the spending power of the. community. The natural consequences are exhibited in the falling off of revenue from other sources, particularly in the railway returns, which, unless- there is a big pull up during the current quarter, will be short of the estimate by about LIOO,OOO. The department certainly does not do anything to encourage travelling, and few persons consequently use the lines except on business ; but the fact remains that under the same principle of management, with a somewhat larger population, the traffic has gradually declined. There is a falling off even in the consumption of colonial beer, as shown by the excise returns. Our Prohibition friends may possibly claim this as being attributable to the spread of total abstinence, but this abstinence has been, we apprehend, in most instances a measure of necessity. The truth of the matter really is that people cannot be made to contribute to the revenue, by any scheme however ingenious, beyond a certain point. If taxed too heavily in one direction, where they cannot well help themselves, as in the case of the Customs duties, they economise their expenditure otherwise, and the State in the aggregate profits but little. We hope in every way for the best, and should be sincerely pleased to find the Treasurer able to bring down a clean balancesheet at the end of the financial year ; but we have very grave doubts on the subject, considering the returds to the end of December. There is yet, however, ' ' corn in Egygt," and the better times now distinctly dawning will in the course of a few months favourably affect all classes and interests, rendering existing taxation more easy to be borne. It is, of all things, however, to be desired that the advantages offered by New Zealand to enterprise and capital may attract population ; for that is the one thing needful to the establishment of real prosperity.