TAXATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 152, 26 May 1884, Page 2

TAXATION.

Incredible as it may appear, (.says Labour Y y we pay more per soli I m New Zealand for taxation than we do for clothing or rent. Our taxation per soul is £6 per annum. The interest on the debt eats away half this sum, and the expenses of Government aud oi her charges, such as local lates eat away the other. A family of five pays, say.s £'J0 a year nett m the way of taxation. Some of our readers perhaps have seen the children's toes peeping out of their boots, or their wive** aud daughters wealing clean but shabby clothing aud have mnriuure<J and wonderod. at their lack. Why wonder, why murmur ? There is nothing to marvel at. They pay the obligation of others. There is nothing to murmur at. They let others rule them when they have their own Government m their own hands. Let any tather of a family ask himself this question — " Should I pay £30 a year for being ruled or governed? Do I cost this sum ?" The question s^ems so absurb as to require no answer, what .must our conduct be like. Is it any wonder we get poorer, that the children have fewer boots and less clothing, that the wife has more trouble to make ends meet ? Would anyone pay our obligations as we pay those of others? Are we noting rightly to our families by paying the debts of others ? — and this we do daily. Let the. breadwinner ask his wife what she can get for £15 a year ? And when she tells him, tell her that that amount you have to pay a« annual interest; on a debt incurred for the holding and the improvement of the property of other people, and let him then listen very carefully and hear whether she does not call her husband a fool.