TARIFFS AND COST OF LIVING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13596, 16 May 1908, Page 6

TARIFFS AND COST OF LIVING.

It is a commentary upon the socialistic legislation on which' New Zealand prides itself, says an Australian editor, that the cost of living, which used to be lower than in any part of Australia, is now sot much higher that the increase in wages due to good times and the Arbitration Court had been swallowed up, and the practical result to the working man of his labour is less than it used to be. In Australia we are going the same way, and during the last year a large increase in the cost of living and consequent decrease in the. practical value of workmen's wag«s has been brought about by the new tariff. This tariff is no doubt , not without its advantages to the working men who like town envploymeiib by providing additional work in factories, but, for their benefit everyone else suffers, and the natural tendency to crowd into cities instead of going out into the country is aggravated. However if the working men who rule the country chocse to impose (axes which hit themselves harder than any other class, we don't know that the other classes should be entitled lo grumble if what was put on the tariff was taken off other sources of revenue, unkss it br> the small settler, whom everybody is supposed to b? so anxious to encouragi\ The tariff hits him very hard, and at tl:° very moment when, he can least alff.rd it. What the other classes have to complain about, however, is said that increased taxation through the tariff is not accompanied by any remission of direct taxation, which is kept on purely for penal purposes, to make the well-to-do pay, without there be-' ing any need for the money nowadays.. This again hits the working man in the long run harder than any class, for not only is the money devoted to direct taxation taken out of the wages fund of the community, but the existence of ]>enril taxation keeps confidence weak and acts as a drag on enterprise.