General.

Perhaps "discursive" would be a better heading for this chapter, which contains a good deal that does not directly relate to either the Property Assessment or Tax Act, but it all has a connection, more or less, with the taxation of property. Many among those who will complain at having to pay this direct tax to the Government will be inclined to protest that it is not needed, and they will speak of the necessity for retrenchment. That retrenchment is necessary will be on all hands admitted, but that retrenchment could possibly be effected to so large an extent as to afford an immediate important reduction in taxation cannot be shown. The interest on borrowed money is one great cause of heavy taxation, and on our national debt the interest is £1,380,000. All the principal, or nearly all, has been expended, and people cannot object to pay the interest. This comes to over £3 per head for each man, woman and child; but the payment of course falls on the men, or a portion of them, and on those in an unequal ratio. Some pay but little; others a great deal. The burden of interest, heavy as it is, must be borne, the money to pay it must be found year by year, and taxation must be imposed to find the money. Gradual retrenchment will have to be resorted to, for until the population of the Colony has increased very largely it will not be able to bear any heavier strain than that now placed upon it.

Our debt has grown rapidly. In 1870 the population of the Colony was 242,800, and the colonial debt, less accrued sinking fund, £7,268,461, or nearly £30 a head. In 1880 the colonial debt, less accrued sinking fund, is £27,113,304, or nearly £60 a head, for a population of about 455,000. In considering these figures it must not be forgotten that railways, roads, and other public works represent a highly important asset as against the increased liability.

Reports of officials of the State of New York, although dealing with a condition of things not parallel to that which exists in this Colony, contain passages bearing so strongly on the questions of public borrowing and the taxing of property, that they should give food for reflection to those who thoughtfully consider our position and prospects as a very young nation. The Comptroller of the State of New York, in a report dated January, 1879, after stating the taxes paid by, and the public debt of, that State, including that of local bodies in it, says, "It is preposterous to hope that a community staggering under such an overwhelming burden can be pros- page 21 perous. No schemes of finance looking to relief from further issues of irredeemable paper are to be tolerated. Too many of the evils of the hour are due to this financial heresy to permit an increase of them. The older nations of the world are suffering even more severely than are we. The countries who use the gold standard, the countries who use the double standard—gold and silver, and the countries who use the paper standard, are all suffering alike. An evil existing in a locality is attributable to local causes; but world-wide evils must be the result of world-wide causes. The world-wide evils of the nations to-day are debt and taxation. To no other causes can the universal distress be laid. Capital and labour suffer alike and from the same cause. The only relief to either must come from a rigid economy in public expenditure." And further, "No system of taxation, however perfect in itself, will accomplish the results hoped for if the officers chosen to perform the necessary work fall short of their full duty. Every dollar of property subject to taxation should be upon the assessors' rolls, and full power should be given them to secure this result; and they should be subject to severe penalties for failure to perform a plain duty. The efforts that are now making to ameliorate the condition of mankind in its present state of dire distress are numerous. The inhabitants of the nations, the world over, are experimenting for relief. There can be no relief unless the burdens weighing down the masses of the people are lightened. There is but one way in which this can be done. 1st. Honesty in administration. 2nd. Economy in expenditures. 3rd. Justice in levying and thoroughness in collecting the revenues." The prescription here given is, beyond dispute, one that would, if faithfully adhered to, relieve the financial difficulties of a country; but it is not, and there cannot be written, one that would bring about a sudden and complete cure. The words "justice in levying and thoroughness in collecting the revenues" have a special meaning as here applied. In New York State there is a property tax, but they do not succeed in getting all the personal property assessed. The Comptroller says, "The returns from the local assessors in our State for the year 1877 place the value of our real property subject to taxation at 2,373,408,540 dollars, and our personal property subject to taxation at 364,960,110 dollars. The assessment of real property may approximate to its real value; but if is plain that the assessment of personal property is far below the true amount."

Another report submitted to the State legislature in 1879 was by the three State assessors. Referring to under-valuing they say, "We regret to see by the assessors' valuations of 1877 and 1878 that some of the counties that largely increased their assessed valuations, and approximated towards full and true value in compliance with the demands of the law, are taking a back track, and assessors are disregarding their oaths and getting again into the old rut of a percentage of full value."

A long and searching supplementary report by James A. Briggs, one of the three assessors (in which his co-assessors were unable to concur), is evidently the result of much study of the question of taxing real and personal property. In many places the language is forcible, and not all of the kind used in an English official document. In its concluding sentences are the following:—"It may be, and is, a difficult matter in times of great business depression to ascertain what is the full and true value of real estate, either in country, city, or village. Assessors must use their best judgment, seek for the best information of men of the best intelligence and common sense, and endeavor to do right; and their assessments, after careful investigation, will generally meet the views of their neighbours. What men want and care for most in matters of taxation is to pay equally. Great care should be taken not to assess poor land and poor buildings at a higher rate than the best land and the best buildings. Make no discriminations in favour of any property, but assess all according to its actual value, then neither blame nor censure can be imputed to the assesors." This is good sound advice; better could not be given to any officers who may be employed under the Property Assessment Department. In this Colony great dissatisfaction has been caused by land-owners in one portion of a county being valued and taxed on a lower scale than those in other parts of it. Valuers and certain local bodies have in some mysterious way agreed that a valuation should be high or low, and low values were the rule in many districts when a county rate was anticipated.

In New York City very many people, for their credit's sake, give false returns of personal property. As the city has to make good to the State any uncollected taxes it loses heavily in this way. The uncollected resident taxes for 1872 were page 22 1,515,319 dollars, and in 1877 267,443 dollars, the total from 1860 to 1877, inclusive, being a little over 10,000,000 dollars. The report says, "These taxes show in a very striking manner the hazards of business and commercial life in that great city of concentrated strife and daring adventure, where multitudes cast their all upon the throw of a die, and often allow themselves to be assessed for more personal property than they possess above their just debts, for the sake of appearances."

This State assessor is of opinion that too much property is exempt from taxation. "The real estate in this State now exempt from taxation, including church property, associations of all kinds, healing institutes for the remedy and cure of all the ills flesh and pockets are heir to, amounts to some 200,000,000 of dollars. Is this right, and is it not paying too dearly for the whistle? . . . If a congregation can afford to pay a minister 3000, 5000, or 10,000 dollars a year salary, and for music in proportion, it can well afford to pay taxes on the building used for Divine worship. . . . Is it not time to repeal all exemptions except the property of the State, counties, and cities of a public character? . . . All institutions of a strictly benevolent character should be exempt from taxation. . . . It is not even a question if colleges any longer should be exempt from taxation. . . . Colleges with able, accomplished, and practical teachers, are an untold good, and send out influences that will reach down through generations to enoble and to bless, but a feeble college or institution that only tries to educate young men of indigent talents and piety, takes them from labour and employment in which they might be useful and respected to pass through life at a poor starving rate, in the condition that their alma maters are from year to year—begging for contributions. . . . Not more than one-third of the people who pay for the support of churches are members; this would make the tax per capita nine and one-third cents, not the cost of a drink of poor whiskey or of one cigar to each attendant of a church per annum for taxes."

There is no fear of the assessors under the Property Assessment Act being so unpopular. They will not do either of the two things which made the "chimney man" feared and detested. He had to go into a house to count the hearths, and he collected the tax, which, being farmed, was hunted up rigorously, and in the dwellings of the poor, beds and bedding were often seized. The luxury of a £500 exemption had not then been invented.