The Workers and Taxation.

The growth of our national indebtedness under the "self, reliant non-borrowing policy," with which the present Administration came into office, is shown elsewhere in this issue. It is interesting to note that in May last the Trades and Labour Councils Conference passed a resolution urging the Government to adopt the very policy which was supposed to be its watchword. Clearly the working man is under no misapprehension as to the result of a course that the Government, in defiance of its own principles, has steadfastly pursued. He knows what effect the Government's extravagance has had upon his pocket, and he fears that worse may come. He is right.

The worst feature of the business is that much of the taxation of which the working man has to pay his full share is quite unnecessary. Mr. Seddon is our authority for this assertion, for in his latest Budget he announced a surplus of three-quarters of a million, as if it were something to be proud of. Whereas as a matter of fact it is merely a proof of his incompetence as Colonial Treasurer. It means that he has overtaxed the people to that extent.

A Colonial Treasurer's duty is to calculate as closely as possible the amount he will require to carry on the Government of the country, and to adjust his taxation accordingly. Unforeseen circumstances may upset his estimates, and may give him a larger revenue than he anticipated—in other words, a surplus. An English Chancellor of the Exchequer, under such circumstances, would reduce the burden of taxation, or perhaps, if the surplus was a large page 19 one, would use some of it to pay off a portion of the national debt. This is not Mr. Seddon's way. He regards a buoyant revenue as an excuse for an increased expenditure on works which, if required at all, would more properly be paid for out of loan, and which, in most cases, are largely intended as bribes for favoured constituencies.

Mr. Seddon's idea of finance, in short, is first to overtax the general ratepayer, and then to distribute the surplus thus squeezed out of the public in quarters where it may produce most votes for Seddonism. The result is that New Zealand is, with one exception the most heavily taxed colony in Australasia, and in the most prosperous times that the colony has ever experienced, our debt has increased more rapidly than in any previous period of our history. This is the price the working man, and every other taxpayer in New Zealand, has to pay for the privilege of being ruled by Mr. Seddon. Is it worth the cost?