The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1889.

Southland Times, Issue 10201, 6 July 1889, Page 2

The Southland Times PUBLI SHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1889.

The property tax seems likely to escape, after ail, the formal trial it was expected to undergo in tbe House or Representatives. This is perhaps to be regretted, aa the debate would have afforded room for the supporters and enemies of the tax to thresh out fully the Arguments on both sideß. There is no disguising the fact that this exaction has been losing popularity, and perhaps it nevtr had so many opponents in Parliament aa it hus at this moment. But these facts are far from determining the question of the wisdom of its continuaDce. Looking at the merits, it must be conceded that no tax could be more thoroughly juat in principle. The elementary view of taxation is that the contributions of citizens to the Government of a country should be in proportion to their possessions ; and this view, with certain limitations, is exactly the view carried out by the impost in question. Much may be said in favour of an Income Tax aa opposed to a tux on property, but besides being- less workable, tho former faila in many instances to touch wealth that the latter briDgs within its grasp. There is nor, on tho whole, a fuirer way of aßße6B : ng the citizens of a country than by making them pay simply according to what they are worth. And the idea of distinguishing between kinds of property — faxing one description aoH freeirjg another — could be showD, we think, to be a clear depaiture from ihe real principle of the tribute. It will be proposed in terms of the budgei to recognise this distinction by a ruodinVation of the present incidence ; but we have no sympathy with the proposal, however popular it may be, and however element in its intention. What we have always reckoned a serious inequality and a wanton limitation of the truo function of a property tix is tbe heavy exemption

that the New Zealand statute allows. It seems DOthiog short of an absurdity that, the principle being to tax property, the holder of property up to LSOO should b-J allowed to escape ! If the principle be a correct one, then it shooH be carried right through, and every contribution shooM be exacted that it would pay to collect. But if this be thought an extreme view, an<? it should be reckoned desirable tdat a section of the community, by reason of its email possessions, should escape, at least the line should be drawn very much lower than the point at which it at present stands. On any such view even, the possessors of: L2OO, L3OO, L4OO, or LSOO should be brought within the svveep of the property tax as a simple consequence of ita, institution, aDd to the enormous benefit of the revenup. There has often been a talk of lowering the exemption, but the fear go doubt of unpopularity w'vh a larg* ma^s df holders of the franchise has stood in the wcy. Oae of the most serious charges brought agniaßt the property tax ie iit) »lfeged tendency to check the influx of capital into the colooy : and that there is son;e foundation for the charge must certainly be allowed. Bat we have to set against this the advantage of deriving from the capital that baß flowed our way and that will undoubtedly remain among us, a fair contribution out of its profi's* to the expenses of government. An occasional capitalist may be turned from our shores by the vision of the property tax, but we have no fear ihat this ecare will operate o as really to impoverish the colony. We shall get capital enough, and perhaps have capital enough already, for all our legifmate wants and far the opening up < f every fair 6.-16. of industry. At all even c it ie quite clear thst, on any plea, we caDnot just sow part wUh Ute ?eyeaus that

this tax bringß in. To substitute a tax on ' land only, the kind of property that ia already the moat heavily burdened of any in | the colony, would be simply suicidal ; and we have before hinted at the difficulty con nected with an income tax, the one that ia generally bracketed with a las on land. It would be impossible to collect au income tax satisfactorily, and, as Sir Harry Atkinson showed, the rate necessary to make snob a tax productive would terrify those who are its most ardent advocates. /There U only one way that we.oan see to^get rid of the property tax, and that is to reduce the expenditure of the colony. What makes the tax necessary is the fact that we are over-governed and that consequently the demands on the comuxunity are far heavier than they ought to be. The moat disappointing feature of the budget iB the absence from it of any indication that the cost of government is to be materially reduced. If the Premier supposes that we have already reached the limits of retrenchment, he will find that his view is not the view of the country. Betrenchment — progressive retrenchment — ia as much a necessity now as when the Government entered on its praiseworthy course of economy last year. What, we should like to hear, has become of the pledge given to Mr Withy, when, towards the end of last session, he abandoned his scheme for a further reduction of the public expenditure by L 100.000? The Premier at that time distinctly committed :he Cabinet to a policy of additional and substantial retrenchment, snd it would have ,been satisfactory bad the budget contained an assurance that this would be carried out in tbe spirit in which it was promised. To say nothing of the fact that £300 000 was the sum that the Government itself proposed as a reasonable reduction of the public charges, and that tbe actual dimitm-*

tion was short of ihis by £70,000, it must be clar to every one that we are v«ry far from having reached tbe limit of necessary retrenchment. Tbe Civil Service is on a scale that is simply preposterona in the government of so small a community. The charge for Education is utterly beyood our means, and, were it not for « kind of superstition on the snbject, would be cut down without the slightest compunction. We are over-oducatiog in the same way that we are over-governing, and the expense of the two blunders is likely to overwhelm us. It will take a bold hand to deal fearlessly with the Civil Service iutereßt, which ha* always been ihe terror and dewpair of our statesmen, and with the Education system, which is the ideal of our doctrinaire idealists ; but such a hand will need to be fouDd before the terrible pressure of taxation can be removed. It may be a question whether the property tax is to be got rid of, or whether the fiscal burdens are to be lightened that rest upon the imports of the colony ; bu». this ia certain — that a largely reduced expendi ture will have to work out the result of a mighty relief somewhere from the taxation that is weighing down the colony.