Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1885. "Robbing the Widow and Fatherless."

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1730, 7 September 1885, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1885. "Robbing the Widow and Fatherless."

Tins present Ministry in its beni» ficence and wisdom "introduced a Property Assessment Bill, which, amongst other things, provided that a should be levied on life insurant. funds. This Bill has now passed its third reading, and will, in duo course, become the law of the land. Mow to tax life insurance funds is surely a most unjust and iniquitous proceeding. The provision for wife and children represented by the sum to accrue from m. insurance policy on the life of the husband and father, is specially one of those funds which ought to be absolutely free from all possibility of taxation. We go further than this, and assert that the sum accruing from a life policy in favor of a man’s wife aud children, ought—up to the amount of £IOO0 — to be absolutely protected from any interference on the part of the creditors of the dead man. The amount of the life policy, up to the extent specified, should go to the wife and children absolutely, and no other human being should have the power to meddle with it. We believe that this principle is, to a certain extent, recognised by the law, as insurance policies for the benefit of wife and family are Jin the Government Life Insurance Association protected against creditors up to the amount of £SOO. If the Government in this way recognise that a life policy should be held sacred to afford a provision for the wile and family of a man who has died, why do they tax life insurance funds ? We cannot conceive any form of taxation more monstrous, abominable than this. Just think of it. A man insures his life while in health and full working power, so that, should he break down and die, those nearest and dearest to him—his loving and devoted wife, and his helpless and innocent little children—may after his death be put into possession of such a sum of money as shall keep want from the door—at least for a time —and protect them from becoming, even in a measure, dependent upon the cold charity of a heartless world. The nun falls ill and cannot earn money. The household becomes impoverished and the gaunt wolf of want prowls threatingly at tho door of the once happy and comfortable home. The man, knowing what will be the inevitable eud, leaves no means untried to keep up the payments on his life policy. Ho pledges every available asset, and exhausts the assistance of friends in order to keep the life policy premiums paid. And should the man succeed in his efforts and the life policy be maintained in force, then when he can fight fortune no lon-m’ aud death comes to hi;; relief, he , os up existence calmly and resignedly, knowing that he has saved his dear ones from tho suffering and hardship of want, Such being the case, we ask the Ministry why they have dared to impose a tax on life insurance funds ? Mo more utterly objectionable, u Just, unfair, and inhuman tox could possibly he conceived. What, tax a husband and father for making an effort to provide a, small fund fur his wife aud children to depend upon when he has been laid in the grave, W hen after a long aud lingering illness, tho head of the family has died and the household is poverty stricken through the debts arising from doctors’ bills, sick nurs'M funeral expenses—is that a inn- ' f he tax gatherer to the time to senu . * to insist poor widows and cau_, upon getting a portion of the sum cif life insurance money which is coining to them I It might be that the life policy in such a ease is only Jor a poor pitiful £IUO, and that such a sum is all that the poor wife and '• half a do/,on children have to lor dr to [ j ior payment ol debts, and procuring J i food, clothing, and other necessaries. 1

Yet at this painful crisis the Ministry of Yogel, of Robert Stout, and of John Ballance would send their tax gatherer into the grief stricken home of the poor man’s children to defraud the widow and orphan of part of the small pittance left to them. May God forgive Ministers and Parliament for imposing such a wicked and cruel tax as this. By their action in this matter the Ministry and Parliament of New Zealand have shown that they are ready to grind down the faces of the poor, to oppress those who are in sore distress, and to rob the widow and the fatherless. Shame upon Ministers and Parliament alike for their infamous and abominable action in this matter.