AS OTHERS SEE US.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 49, 11 September 1891, Page 29

AS OTHERS SEE US.

(From the Melbourne Argus.) NBW ZEALAND seems fated to bacome the experimenting ground for every crude and wild scheme of taxation that the ignorance of man can devise. The property that has been ruined from volcanic erup- «»' d floods, and over-borrowing Rnd financial disaster, is again 3 heavily taxed. In order to meet the wants of the " most disful " Government of the colonies, the customs duties have been raißed as far as possible. The land has, of course, been taxed for the reason apparently that it requires more working capital and returns less profits than the town industries and the speculations on the stock exchange. The present Government, however, is bent on proving to the world still more clearly that there is almost no limit to the taxation which may be imposed upon a law abiding people. It has determined to show to admiring nations that the tax gatherer , however objectionable he may ordinarily be deemed, can prevent the accumulation of wealth and bring about that millennium of ambitionless mediocrity which is the cry of the high priests of modern democratic cant, ir New Zealand thus chooses to become a vile corpus for the benefit of other communities, the experiments will be watched with deep interest. As a matter of course an income tax is proposed, and in case there should be any fear that it might not be sufficiently inquisitorial, every employer is required to furnish a Hat of all the wages and salaries that he pays, and the names and addresses of thoße to whom he pays them ; and it is OLly by a strange oversight, apparently, that ho is nut asked to account for the manner in which the money is spent. This list ia to be given to a commissioner, who may use it in any way that he thinks fit. It does not appear to be suggested, however, that the employer should pay tax on the wages that he disburs.s, The Government proposes to get at him by compelling him to piy a tax on the bad debts that he has incurred. No exemption is to be made, according to the Government proposal, for bad debts, unless the utter badnesa of the debt is proved to the satisfaction of the commissioner. This, of course, may mean that — if the bad debts are run up by friends of the commissioner — the tax will be remitted, but if the debtors and the unfortunate creditor himself belong to another political party, the tax will be collected, and an employer will have to pay a duly upon his losses. Those who have followed the recent exposures of financial corruption in New Zealand will have no difficulty i n seeing what may be effected by a little unscrupulous enterprise out of the Government proposals. But, in addition, there is tj be a gralu'i^d tax on all es'ates which are above the value of £5,000. Th-j man who is industrious enough to acquire an estate of such value is at one? treated as if his ability and perseverance were only meant to carry the burdens of bad administration, and the tuuii who lias acquired estates of higher value is made to suffer in a higher degree . And, to prevent people from usin^ the credit syatem in their business, it is expressly stipulated that no deduction is to be made tor mortgages. The unhappy owner of an estate is expected to pay twice over. He baa to pay interest on the borrowed money, without which he might not be able to employ a single labourer, and he is to be mulcted also by the Government in an oppressive percentage. It can hardly be said that even improvements are exempt from this new taxation upon skill and forethought and mental übihty. After the lapse of only ten years the full duty will be exacted up~>n tbe value of all the clearing and draining and laying down fields in pasture that the proprietors of the land may have done. In New South Wales an unreasonable increase in the rents was sufficient to stop all improvements on the land, and the laoourers joined with the proprietors to have the law altered. Such considerations, however, come from mere experience, and have no weight with a New Zealand Government which is trying to test a theory of taxation, A still further step, however, in this chivalric crusidc against that mean and paltry tninjj which is described as the mateiial prosperity of the community, is the proposal to treat the possession of land as a crime. Anyone who owns more th'en 2,000 acres of land» who has acquired his estate by his shrewdness and intelligence, who, while gaining a position for himself, baa been developing the pastoral and agricultural resources of New Zealand, is to be nude liable to a sentence of five years' penal servitude. According to the New Zealand policy, the loafer may get an allotmeut and the implements to work it, and his food and clothing, for nothing, but the colonist who knows how to turn the land to account may be branded as a criminalWhy, the men who would come under tLia condemnation are men who employ the greatest number ot labjuiers, and who have done the most to stimulate the export of wt ent and frozen mutton, which is the main item in New Zealand commerce. 'Ihe owners of what v— have been regarded as model farms would find that th< y were considered to have done the Stpte an injustice by developing its trade and commerce. And they i.re blamed because the Government panders to people who know nothing of agriculiure. It is as if we were to destroy machinery and revert to the handlcom.

In this extraordinary scheme of taxation the Government has Him ply stooped to the crude, ignorant, unprogressive, and reactionary ideas of the labour party. It shows what might be suggested in this Oolony if the less educated portion of the labour agitators gained any substantial power in the State. It points out the absolute necessity of working steadily, continuously, and earnestly to preserve our freedom, the freedom of every individual of labour, to plan, to accumulate. The result of the proposals made in New Zealand, if they are carried, will probably be to throw the country into the hands ot the money lenders. The owners of the mortgaged estates will be forced to sell, and the money advanced upon them will not be lost to the usurers. The small holders of land will have to borrow that they may find the mear»B of working. Upon diminished skill in agriculture would follow a diminution in results, and money would be required from the Government, which would be compelled to raise it in some way. It seems highly possible that a Jewish financier who holds New Zealand io his hand may yet stand upon a New London bridge and admire the stolid common sense of Englishmen.