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THE GENERAL ELECTION

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VOL. II., No. 5.

MELBOURNE, SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1894.

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over, the resolute, if often mistaken want of confidence should be pressed
way, in which the Ministry tackled home, the result could not have been
the retrenchment and unemployed doubtful under any ordinary condi-
question, showed that it was possessed tions. But the conditions were far
of some of the administrative ability, from ordinary; on the contrary, no
in which its predecessors had been more extraordinary or humiliating
so deplorably deficient.
conditions could well be imagined. For,
discredited as the Ministry was and
is, the then leader of the Opposition
and his principal lieutenants were
more discredited still.
his ordinary senses, would displace
Patterson in order to hand over
the Government to Shiels; nor was
it at all likely that the country would
pardon such an act. This difficulty

From the very beginning of the session, however, the hectoring and num, post free. In Victoria, two copies to UNE address, bullying attitude of the Premier gave concern to his friends, and filled the Opposition with hope. Though a good fighter when pushed into a corner, Sir James Patterson is by no means a man of strong and sustained will-power. He therefore

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The Beacon.

"Where wages are highest, there will be the

largest production and the most equitable dismost active, and the brain guide best the hand. There will be the greatest comfort, the widest the truest patriotism."-HENRY GEORGE (Pro

tribution of wealth. There will invention be

diffusion of knowledge, the purest morals, and tection or Freetrade).

1ST SEPTEMBER, 1894.

The Patterson Ministry owed its birth, not to any merit of its own, but to the absolute ineptitude of the Cabinet which it displaced. From the very first it was a stop-gap Ministry, tolerated and supported because no better could be got at the time. The only man in whom the country still has confidence, refused, and still refuses to come to its rescue, and the country therefore was, and still is, compelled to put up with men whom it more or less distrusts. Nevertheless it cannot be denied that the Government gained considerable strength during the recess. The junketing and speechifying with which the Premier is reproached, had at least the effect of making him known in many constituencies, and the tone of his speeches, especially their recognition of the supreme importance of our natural industries, led people to hope that after all some good might be done by the Patterson team. More

trusting the leadership of the Opposi-
tion to Mr. G. Turner, a compara-
tively unknown man, who, without
being credited with any great ability,
has impressed the House by his sus-
tained industry. No sooner was this
step taken, however, than it was
behind the personal
found that
difficulty there loomed an even more
serious one, one of principle.

arise from conscious strength alone, and
is apt to be fussy and dictatorial. In
spite of these faults, however, the
Ministry might have got safely through
the session, and into a long recess, if
this same absence of quiet courage
had not led them into framing a Bud-
get, which, for absolute frivolity and
foolishness, holds the premier place,
even among the remarkable budgets
of our colony. What were exactly the
The Opposition includes almost all
considerations which caused the the men in the House who are
Ministry to outrage the sentiments of pledged to extreme Protection,
every section of the community can- among them the Labour party led by
not as yet be told with certainty. It Mr. Trenwith. In addition to the
appears, however, that the hostile advocacy of Protection the latter
attitude of the Ministerial Corner party also insists upon an income tax.
towards the income tax was the main The Ministerial corner, on the other
cause of the postponement of this hand, is almost entirely composed of
measure. Failing the courage to Free Traders, and many of its mem-
supply its place with some other form bers object strongly to the income tax.
of direct taxation, the drag-net duties Over and above these differences,
were the only substitute that suggested however, there is the personal ani-
itself to the torpid mind of the Trea- mosity between the Labour members
surer. However that may be, the and some of the denizens of the Mini-
folly displayed in proposing them, sterial corner. To bring those an-
and the undignified, nay, Cow-tagonistic elements together, to in-
ardly rout of the Ministry be-
fore the storm of indignation which
it provoked a rout in which the good
as well as the bad proposals of their
Budget were involved-shattered any
feeling of confidence which had been
created, and completely disorganised
the party on whose support the
Ministry relied.

When under these circumstances the Opposition resolved that a vote of

duce Mr. M'Kenzie and Mr. Trenwith to become members of the one and the same Ministry, was the task which confronted Mr. Turner when he assumed the responsibility of moving his want of confidence motion, and which would become more pressing if the Ministry were to resign. As things stand, however, it is more than probable that Sir James Patterson will advise the Governor to dissolve the

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House, and that the Governor will
act on this advice; in that event a
general election will be upon us in a
few days.
Nor can it be delayed
long even if Mr. Turner should as-
sume office. For the chaotic condi-
tion of the House, and the incongru-
ous nature of any Cabinet he may
form, preclude the possibility of any
real work being done before an appeal
to the electors has cleared the at-
mosphere. The present House has
outlived its usefulness, if it ever
possessed any, and the sooner it
passes out of existence the better will
it be for the country.

The Free Trade party has to thank
the Patterson Ministry and its out-
rageous budget for the fact that it
has to enter upon an election contest
before its organisation is complete.
Another six months would have been
sufficient to consolidate the Free Trade
forces, and gain a majority in the
coming Parliament; as it is, the party
cannot hope to accomplish this, unless
the Free Traders work with doubled
and trebled energy and enthusiasm.
They have every reason to do so, for
the future of the country, the well-
being of every man, woman, and child
depend upon their success. Unless
the burdens of our farmers are largely
reduced, and the loss of £1500 a day
in our national household is stopped,
and stopped quickly, the consequences
will be too frightful to contemplate.
The Free Trade party alone, of all
the warring sections, has formed a
clear conception of the measures re-
quired to accomplish this. Its plat-
form, just adopted and sanctioned by
a convention of delegates from all
parts of the country, speaks in no
hesitating manner. Abolish the duties
which give revenue to private persons
instead of the Government, and raise
£600,000 by a tax which mainly falls
on the valuable lands which now es-
cape taxation, those in the cities, that
is its programme. With such a cry,
with the secured prospect that these
measures will save the nation from
bankruptcy, the farmers from extinc-
tion, and will give work and wages
to the city population, every Free
Trader feels that success is within
his grasp.
What is wanted is work,
work of the hardest and most devoted
kind, work by every one whose convic-
tions are expressed by these mea-
sures, and that success will be ours.
Even if it should fail to give us a
majority, we can be certain of
such a number, that the floating
and warring sections of the House

will gather round it, like driftwood
round a rock. Our success is_as-
sured, even if the out and out Free
Traders fail to do more than to send a
considerable minority to Parliament.
We call upon all Free Traders to de-
vote themselves to this work, to the
work of saving our country-and may
success attend their efforts.

A Property Tax.

of shareholders, the shares as well as the property would be taxed, i.e., the property would be taxed twice over. The same double taxation would arise from taxing bills, and as we cannot conscientiously charge either Sir Frederick Sargood or the morning papers with the intention of doing this injustice, we are compelled to conclude that shares and bills were thrown in as a make-weight to deceive the farmers.

tax. As far as existing mortgages are
concerned, that belief is no doubt
warranted.
warranted. It is, however, equally
certain, and no man knows it better
than Sir F. T. Sargood, that on the
renewal of existing or on the con-
clusion of new mortgages, the tax
would be shifted on to the mortgagor.

Equally so with the tax on stockin-trade. Whether a tax is placed on manufactured goods before or after they enter the colony, makes no difference in its behaviour. In either case it is not paid by the dealer, but by the ultimate purchaser of the goods.

Still more curious is the proposal to tax mortgages. The object obviously The "Age," after a short renewal is to lead to the belief that the mortof its advocacy of a tax on the unim-gagee would pay this portion of the proved value of land, has joined its hated rival in clamouring for a general property or wealth tax. The conversion, if not due to a letter by Sir Frederick T. Sargood, is at least coincident with its appearance, and as both morning papers have several times quoted from the same, it may be taken to express their views. What strikes us first in this letter is the reference to the existence of the property tax in New Zealand. The sentence is so carefully worded that it is calculated to provoke the belief, and has widely provoked it, that this tax is still in existence there and is in some way connected with the prosperity of that colony. Whereas the fact is, that the people of New Zealand showed their appreciation of this tax, so much beloved of Sir F. T. Sargood, by getting rid of it on the first opportunity. The Ballance Ministry was pledged to abolish it and to substitute for it a tax on the unimproved value of land yielding £300,461, and an income tax yielding £70,000; moreover, the return of prosperity to New Zealand is coincident with this abolition of the very tax for which our morning papers now contend.

It is therefore manifest that the objects which are enumerated as liable to taxation under the property tax, include, (a) forms of wealth which cannot be taxed; (b) forms of wealth the tax on which can be shifted to other shoulders by the ostensible payor.

Of the taxable articles enumerated in Sir F. T. Sargood's letter, there remain, therefore, land, cattle, sheep, horses, cash, houses, and, what he probably overlooked, furniture and growing crops. These are the things to be taxed, and any tax falling on these things will burden the farmers Another and similar surprise is pro- and working classes to a very much vided by the enumeration of the vari- larger extent than the wealthy men in ous forms of wealth which are to be the community, even if we omit the made liable to the tax, viz., land, injury which a tax on mortgages and cattle, sheep, horses, shares, mort- on stock-in-trade must inflict on them. gages, cash in bank, bills, houses, For, while all such property held by stock-in-trade, &c. This enumeration farmers and workingmen is visible, clearly proves either that the advocates and can be valued by any ordinary of this tax have not the slightest con- valuator, it is far different with those ception of what they are proposing, or possessed by wealthy men. Jewellery are anxious to deceive a section of the plate, and cash can be concealed community. Take for instance shares. with the greatest ease, and such proIf they have a value, they are some-perty as pictures, costly hangings thing more than mere pieces of paper and carpets, elaborate houses, fine and represent some form of property. horses and carriages, can only be If then a bank belonged to a private valued properly by a few experts in the individual, all the bank's property community. Consequently, while the would be taxed once. If the same farmers and working classes will be bank, however, were owned by a body taxed up to the hilt,much of the pos

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