GOVERNMENTAL EXTRAVAGANCE.

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 509, 9 September 1862, Page 1

GOVERNMENTAL EXTRAVAGANCE.

[The correctness of the remarks on the corrupt extravagance of tho New Zealand governmentsgeneral and provincial—will be better understood when it ia statod that there are nearly GOo General Government officers, at salaries amounting to nearly £SO,OOO per annum; and 450 Provincial officers afc salaries amounting to £100,000 yearly. Truly an ' Ignoble Army of Martyrs.']

In this quarter of the world (New Zealand) economy is little thought of in any shape. In public affairs profusion of the public resources seems to be considered the cardinal virtue of our colonial statesmen. The

burden of taxation has long ago reached that limit beyond which two and two cease to make four, but still oar public men are insatiable. We believe we are correct iv saving that in no colony are the necessaries and comforts of the laboring classes taxed to the same extent as tbey are in New Zaaland. It says much for the well-being of all classes that such enormous deductions as are made from the income of every family, should be submitted to so quietly. The tax gatherer is never seen at the door, and people forget-—in most instances they are perhaps not aware—how much their means of living are reduced by the excise of the Custom House. We have been told that in this country there is no taxation; which, in an etymological sense is true. But the difference between taxation—that is, taking a man's money—and excising— that is, culling off a part of the commodities which he purchases,—is only a difference of words; the effect is the same. If a man pays, as he now does, 2s. 6d. for what, without the excise of the Customs, would cost him 25., does it make any difference to him that his means of enjoyment are diminished by what is called Customs' duties, rather than by the visits of the tax gatherer ? If the annual expenditure of a family-amounts to £200 per annum, it will be found, on an examination of the tariff, that at least from £15 to £20 of that £200 has gone to the Custom House—has been levied in transitu upon the imported articles which are consumed by the family.

We speak of families which indulge least in wines and spirits and tobacco—commodities which, not being necessary to a healthy and happy existence, aro tho lease objectionable sources from which a public revenue can be drawn. In families witb. smaller incomes, the burden is perhapseven heavier in proportion, because, while the lady's silk dress which costs £3, pays a duty of 3d. or 4d., the workman pays a duty of 2s. on his pea jacket, whicli costs 155., and ls. 6d: upon his bootswhile the lady's gold watch, which costs £25, is excised at the fraction of a farthing, the laborer pays 3d. on his spade. This injustice arises from the duty on the majority of imports being levied according to their bulk, instead of its being levied according to tbeir value. This measurement duty was the subject of discussion at a late meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, which was held to take into consideration the bills that were some time ago circulated by the Attorney-General, for the purpose ol obtaining suggestions respecting them, before they should be proposed to the General Assembly. Some discussion having taken place respecting the tariff. 5 upon the consideration of a letter from the Lyttelton Chamber of Commerce, and the report of a committee of the Wellington Chamber upon that letter, it was finally agreed, first,' That in the opinion of this Chamber (that of Auckland), a change of the present tariff is required; and secondly, ' That in the opinion of this Chamber, the measurement duty should be abolished ;* and then follows the astounding announcement that a committee was appointed to consider how the deficiency created by the abolition of tho measurement ducy, if carried could be made good. We use the terra, astounding, because no member of the Chamber of Commerce could have been ignorant of the fact that the Customs' revenue of the year exceded, by a sum of not less than £70,000, the Customs' revenue of the year preceding. And yet Captain Daldy, of whom it is only justice to say that he has shown a .clearer head in matters of finance than any other of oiu' local politicians, thought ' they could not afford to do away with a portion of the Customs' revenue.' He says, «It is not proposed to reduce the amount of the revenue which the Government consider essential to the wants of the public service, for you should recollect that, in any diminution of the Customs' revenue, the Provincial Governments would suffer.'

But while we would deprecate on the one hand that false economy which inca- | pacitates a government for the efficient | performance of its legitimate and necessary functions, we consider that a much greater a.nd more permanent evil arises from a lavish expenditure. If .economy is not itself the first virtue of a govern ment, it is certainly one of the best guarantees for its proper conduct. If the public business were conducted as men conduct their private business; if a government would confine its expenditure to the proper ends and objects of its institution, the public business would aot only be transacted at less cost to those who have to bear the burden, but there would speedily be aa end of the fictitious business which occasions so large a share of *he public expenditure. If the love of money is the root of all evil in relation to the affairs of a man's private life, it is a root whose branches are immeasurably multiplied and extended when planted in the sunshine of power, and watered by the streams of public wealth. When to the love of money is added the Inst of power,—the ambition to rule, and to be called of men 'honorable,' 'your honor'—when in the absence of men placed by the gifts oi' fortune above the temptation to seek office because of its emoluments,—office is sought as a means of pecuniary gain, and can only be held by ministering'to the covetousness of others in such circumstances, the relations of the governors and the governed are altogether altered from the type, which assumes that the offices of administration are held from patriotic motives and a sense of duty for the good of the community, politics become a trade in which the least scrupulous traders become the lords of the market— the magnates of the exchange. The desire to receive and expend money becomes insatiable—because it is only by extending the basis on which their power rests that the holders of office can consolidate their power.— AucMander,