Wanganui Herald. (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1884. THE RAILWAY TARIFF.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 5310, 17 March 1884, Page 2

Wanganui Herald. (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1884. THE RAILWAY TARIFF.

When the Governmentadded£lso,ooo to the Railway Tariff, the Wellington papers received the cue to say that though the total would be a considerable relief to the revenue, the charges were so distributed that no one would feel them. This was the language of servility and toadyism for which the Wellington press has earned an unpleasant reputation in the colony. It was moreover so thoroughly untruthful that a schoolboy could see through the deception without a moment's hesitation. We at once pointed out that what had been done was to increase the taxation by an amount equal to the Property Tax as it stood last year. Since then the matter has been taken up in Canterbury, and the increase is meeting with condemnation. In our present issve we publish a telegram showing in what way the device of raising the wind has been received. But an industry in which we are deeply interested in Wanganui is also prejudiced, and unless the Government can be forced to reverse their policy, the timber export trade of the port will be simply extinguished, to the ruin of the sawmillers and of others dependent on the trade. We refer to an advertisement calling a public meeting in the Princess Theatre on Friday evening, when we hope every business man and resident of Wanganui will be present. It need hardly be said that to increase the railway charges by £150,000 a year, means fresh taxation to that amount on the industrial classes, including the farmers, sawmillers, and others who already find it difficult to weather the depression that exists. Their difficulties immediately react on the shopkeepers and trading classes, and we have as a result hard times all round. Looking at it as an act of public policy, we enter our protest against it on the ground that it is monstrous that any Minister should have the power to go into bis room, and there, by a few turns of the screw, be able to increase the taxation of the country by £150,000! This taxation falls principally on the industrious classes — the cultivators of the soil. The land speculator, as usual, almost entirely escapes. Yet it is this class that has really caused most of the depression. Break up the large properties that are lying comparatively idle, and the railways will begin to pay. But the present Government dare not touch their friends, and consequently we have to bear a Property Tax which includes improvements, and a Railway Tariff that falls principally on the industrial classes. The present Government has added to the taxation of the country about a million a year, and still the revenue declines. The colony languishes, and the people wonder when the depression will pass away.