Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, 3rd SEPTEMBER, 1867.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2566, 3 September 1867, Page 3

Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, 3rd SEPTEMBER, 1867.

Exactly forty-seven years ago Sidney Smith in one of his celebrated Edinburgh Review articles, informed the Americans what were the consequences of being too fond of glory, by painting the following graphic picture of the enormous taxation which is the result of war: — Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth or covers the back, or is placed under the foot — taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste — taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion — taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the carth — on everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at horne — taxes on the raw material — taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man — taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health — on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal — on the poor man's salt, and the rich 1 man's spice — on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride — at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. — The schoolboy whips his taxed top — the beardless youth 1 manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road : — and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 per cent, into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent. — flings himself back upon his chintz bed, which Jjias paid 22 per cent. — and expires in the "arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from 2to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel ; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gatherea to his fathers — to be taxed no more." In the colony of New Zealand, we have pretty nearly realised this state of affairs. Between the Customs Tariff, the Stamp Duties, and the local rates, in town and country, the colonists are, in proportion to revenue and population, about the most over-taxed people on the iace of the earth. No wonder, then, if Mr Fitzherbert the other day stated it as the opinion of the Government that taxation could not be increased. We should think not. In fact, we go further and echo an opinion which has been very emphatically expressed, that the tariff should be revised and materially reduced. There aretwo features in thefinancial statement which have given rise to a general feeling of dissatisfaction, viz : the proposal to raise what is in, reality a fresh loan of £200,000, and the assertion that no reduction in taxation will be proposed by the Government during the session. With regard to this loan the Government has scarcely acted with strict honesty. Mr Fitzherbert laid stress on the point, that he did not mean to have any fresh loan, but in the same breath, proposed that the full sum of three millions should be raised under the Loan Act of 1 863. That is to say, although the colony has issued debentures to the amount of threemillions, which require to be redeemed in full, yet as the discount thereon was £260,000, it is proposed to raise that sum besides. This is a very objectionable method of doing business, though possibly it may bd legal enough. The Act, it is asserted, gives power to raise the full sum of three millions without deduction of discount, but its Kramers certainly never contemplated doing anything of the kind. It was never intended to make the colony liable for more than three millions. Dcbautures were to be sold to that amount at the best price that could be got for them, and tho sum accruing would represent the full proceeds of the loan. Once admit the principle which the proposition of the Government involves, and a country might incur a debt far greater in amount than its Parh'atnsnt had ever meant to sanction. Mr Cur -is put this view of the case very clearly on Friday night, when he said that if one hundred pound debentures, 1 submitted to a forced sale at a very unfavorable period, only realised £50, then to raise a sum of three millions would involve a liability for six. This of course is an extreme, but not an impossible case. As the proposal stands, the three-million loan will involve a liability of more than three millions and a quarter, withoutallowiug for the discount to be charged on the £260,000 which Mr Fitzherbert proposes to raise. If a loan is indispensable, which we are not prepared to admit, then let a fresh Act be passed to sanction its being raised. It comes to the same thing in the end whether we borrow under an Act of 1863 or one of 1867, because our debt is equally increased ; but the latter plan is the more honest and straightforward. " I shan't ask for a loan, but I want to raise £260,000," is what Mr Fitzherbert virtually said in his financial statement, and it now appears that he is indifferent what mode of borrowing is adopted so long as the money is forthcoming. It is by no means satisfactory that a loan should be asked for and no reduction made in the taxation. Mr Fitzherbert is not disquieted thereat, because he looks forward to a large borrowing future for New Zealand, and thinks that if English capitalists would assess our borrowing powers, by collecting information as to the resources of the country, they would as willingly'lend us a sum three or four times the amount of our aggregate debt, as a paltry quarter million. It is true enough that the resources of the'

-colony are 'very great/ but -it is atihe same time certain, that we have'got quite : deeply enough into debt, when the provision for interest and sinking funds on existing General Government loans absorb £238,248 16s lOd a year, or nearly twenty-five per cent, of the estimated revenue. It is no doubt very pleasant to go on borrowing, because financial proposals are thus very much simplified, and the disagreeable alternative of retrenchment avoided ; but this I system must come to an end when the rate of taxation becomes so great as to make it difficult for a working man to live in a country which should be to him a land of plenty. It is time to raise the cry for financial reform, when affairs have come to such a pass. But it will be said by the centralists that it is impossible to reduce taxation and to do without a loan if the demands of the provinces are satisfied. Those who urge this objection appear to forget that while the system of Provincial administration is on the whole conducted with a due regard to economy and efficiency, that of the General Government is extravagant in the highest degree. After the provinces have been granted that share of the revenue to which they are justly entitled, there is still abundant room for retrenchment in the expenditure of the General Government. The country is strangled with red tape. Office-seeking has become a trade in New Zealand, and an important part of the duty performed by Cabinet Ministers is to create lucrative sinecures for their friends to fill. We pay every year alarge sum in pensions, whilethe " General Charges" for the salaries of public departments, exclusive of those maintained in the provinces, come to an enormous amount. It is an insult to the common sense of the taxpayers to say that retrenchment cannot be carried out by the abolition of comparatively useless offices, and a reduction in the number of that great official array, which is maintained out of the hard-won earnings of the working classes in this colony. It is no doubt an excellent plan for a weak Ministry to buy up dangerous opponents by placing them in snug sinecures, at salaries of eight hundred a year ; but we take leave to tell those honorable gentlemen and their nominees, that the time is fast approaching when the people of this colony will no longer submit to the existence of a system, which is rank jobbery in its beginning, and audacious robbery while it lasts. Moreover, there has been more than enough of extravagant expenditure on the natives, and the reduction already made in it might fittingly be carried much further. No doubt it is a highly laudable proceeding to provide them with schools, churches, resident magistrates, assessors, and police ; but such benevolence should only be exerted in proportion to our means, and we cannot afford the large sum which is proposed to be devoted to those purposes. There might also be some trenchant cutting down in the Estimates for Volunteer and Militia staffs ; while, above all, the indulgence in costly luxuries, which are by no means indispensable, should be put an end to. It appears monstrous for instance, that a sum closely approaching to £5000, should be spent during the session to maintain a Government reporting, staff and publish a " Hansard" containing all the lengthy speeches of hon. members, when the money to do it is obtained by taxing almost every imported article of food, drink, and clothing. Is this expenditure either necessary or warranted in the existing circumstances of the colony ? And besides, it has to be remembered that the Government maintain a printing establishment at a cost at least double that which would be incurred, if the work required to be done were thrown open k> public tender. We know that the figures are purposely understated to avoid raising antagonism in the House— we know that the number of printers employed and the waves paid them are nearly double what; is stated in the Estimates ; we know, moreover, that some of the expenditure for printing is classed under other heads— but even after all this has been done, the stated cost of the printing department is £6,171. If the truth were told, those figures would be very much higher. Add to this the item of £10,000 for printing paper and stationery, with £2,000 more for printing under the head of general charges ; £300 for lithography , £400 for printing a Gazetteer ; and the sum amounts to £18,871. Despite this enormous expenditure on printing, it is complained of in the House everyday that urgent business ia delayed and important information withheld, because the printing office cannot do the work of Parliament with sufficient expedition. It appears to us that in those and other departments there is ample room for retrenchment. Work done by Government for itself always costs much more than wlien. it is Uirown open to public competition, and its execution left to private i enterprise. It may suit the Ministry to , cripple the press by setting up an opposition printing office, but the country j suffers for it— and if it be wise — will not ' consent to suffer long. We commend tho estimates to the careful perusal o£ independent members. If they scrutinise them with sufficient care, the reduction of expenditure will no longer appear to be that impossibility which Ministers would have us believe.