GROCERS, WINE AND SPIRIT MERCHANTS, ITALIAN WARE & 71 ELIZABETH STREET, MEL

ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN.

ICE TO HOLDERS OF GUARDIAN HAT

SPECIALLY

On application, personally or by letter, I am prepared to quote
REDUCED RATES OF PREMIU
State No. of Coupon, and where purc
throughout the colony.

ose wishing to increase the amount of their insurance.

rdian Accident & Guarantee Insurance Co. of Au

29 QUEEN STREET, MELBOURNE.

ARTHUR EARL LEWIS

RNLEA NURSERY, HORSHAM.L. FORS

splendid stock of Fruit Trees raised on the most approved stocks.

e a splendid supply of Cuttings of the celebrated Almeria Vine at 1s. each. The " is the grape of Spain for export purposes. No other nurseryman in the colony JAMES CLEMENTS.

THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

ine Settlers requiring Homes in New South Wales should communicate at once with Mr. Frank L.A., Hay Irrigation Settlement Office, 39 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. The Hay Irrigation ises 25,000 acres of magnificent alluvial soil, specially dedicated by Act of Parliament for purposes. Title, perpetual leasehold; all rents to be paid into a trust fund, and expended in

WHOLI

Saddle, Collar,

288 POST OFF

W. M. FOSTER.
S. H. GOWDIE.

A

Carriage and Bug Order. Best Engli Always on Hand.

THE GENER

improvements upon irrigation area for the general benefit of the Settlers. All particulars Free Trade and

n application to

FRANK COTTON, M.L.A., 39 Castlereagh Street, Sydney.

THE BEAC

VOL. II., No. 5.

MELBOURNE, SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1894.

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over, the resolute, if often mistaken want o way, in which the Ministry tackled home, the retrenchment and unemployed doubtf question, showed that it was possessed tions. of some of the administrative ability, from o in which its predecessors had been more so deplorably deficient. conditi

From the very beginning of the discred session, however, the hectoring and is, the

num, post free. In Victoria, two copies to ONE address, bullying attitude of the Premier gave and h concern to his friends, and filled more the Opposition with hope. Though his or a good fighter when pushed into Patters a corner, Sir James Patterson is by no the G means a man of strong and sus

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The Beacon.

"Where wages are highest, there will be the
tribution of wealth. There will invention be

largest production and the most equitable dis-
most active, and the brain guide best the hand.
There will be the greatest comfort, the widest
diffusion of knowledge, the purest morals, and
the truest_patriotism."-HENRY GEORGE (Pro-
tection or Freetrade).

1ST SEPTEMBER, 1894.

it at a

was to

step t

found

difficul

serious

The

tained will-power. He therefore pardon
arise from conscious strength alone, and trustin
lacks that repose and pliability which
is apt to be fussy and dictatorial. In tion to
spite of these faults, however, the tively
Ministry might have got safely through being
the session, and into a long recess, if has in
this same absence of quiet courage tained
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
considerations which caused the the m
Ministry to outrage the sentiments of pledged
every section of the community can- among
not as yet be told with certainty. It Mr. 1
appears, however, that the hostile advoca
attitude of the Ministerial Corner
towards the income tax was the main
cause of the postponement of this
measure. Failing the courage to
supply its place with some other form
of direct taxation, the drag-net duties
were the only substitute that suggested
itself to the torpid mind of the Trea-
surer. However that may be, the and son
folly displayed in proposing them, sterial
and the undignified, nay, COW- tagonis
ardly rout of the Ministry
be- duce M
fore the storm of indignation which to beco
it provoked-a rout in which the good same
as well as the bad proposals of their confron
Budget were involved-shattered any sumed
feeling of confidence which had been want o
created, and completely disorganised would
the party on whose support the Minist
Ministry relied.
stand,

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

party a The M hand, Free T bers ob Over howeve mosity

When under these circumstances bable t the Opposition resolved that a vote of advise

ection will be upon us in a Nor can it be delayed à if Mr. Turner should ase. For the chaotic condie House, and the incongrue of any Cabinet he may clude the possibility of any being done before an appeal ectors has cleared the atThe present House has its usefulness, if it ever any, and the sooner it of existence the better will he country.

Still more cur
tax mortgages.
is to lead to the

tax.
As far as e
concerned, that
warranted. It i
certain, and no
than Sir F. T. S
renewal of exist
clusion of new
would be shifted

Equally so with in-trade. Wheth manufactured go they enter the co ference in its be case it is not paid by the ultimate pu

The "Age," after a short renewal
of its advocacy of a tax on the unim-gagee would pay
proved value of land, has joined its
hated rival in clamouring for a general
property or wealth tax. The con-
version, 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 refer-
ence 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 be-
loved 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 re-
turn of prosperity to New Zealand is
coincident with this abolition of the
very tax for which our morning papers
now contend.

ee Trade party has to thank
rson Ministry and its out-
budget for the fact that it
ter upon an election contest
organisation is complete.
six months would have been
to consolidate the Free Trade
nd gain a majority in the
arliament; as it is, the party
pe to accomplish this, unless
Traders work with doubled
led energy and enthusiasm.
e every reason to do so, for
e of the country, the well-
every man, woman, and child
pon their success. Unless
ns of our farmers are largely
and the loss of £1500 a day
tional household is stopped,
ed quickly, the consequences
Do frightful to contemplate.
eTrade party alone, of all
ing sections, has formed a
ception of the measures re-
accomplish this. Its plat-
t adopted and sanctioned by
tion of delegates from all
the country, speaks in no
g manner. Abolish the duties
ve revenue to private persons
f the Government, and raise
by a tax which mainly falls Another and similar surprise is pro-
aluable lands which now es- vided by the enumeration of the vari-
tion, those in the cities, that ous forms of wealth which are to be
gramme. With such a cry, made liable to the tax, viz., land,
secured prospect that these cattle, sheep, horses, shares, mort-
3 will save the nation from gages, cash in bank, bills, houses,
cy, the farmers from extinc-stock-in-trade, &c. This enumeration
I will give work and wages clearly proves either that the advocates
eity population, every Free of this tax have not the slightest con-
feels that success is within ception of what they are proposing, or
What is wanted is work, are anxious to deceive a section of the
the hardest and most devoted community. Take for instance shares.
rk by every one whose convic- If they have a value, they are some-
e expressed by these mea- thing more than mere pieces of paper
nd that success will be ours. and represent some form of property.
it should fail to give us a If then a bank belonged to a private
we can be certain of individual, all the bank's property
number, that the floating would be taxed once. If the same
rring sections of the House bank, however, were owned by a body

p.

It is therefore m

jects which are en to taxation under include, (a) form cannot be taxed; the tax on which other shoulders payor.

Of the taxable a

in Sir F. T. Sarg remain, therefore, horses, cash, hous probably overlook growing crops. T to be taxed, and a these things will bu and working classes larger extent than t the community, eve injury which a tax on stock-in-trade mu For, while all such farmers and workin and can be valued valuator, it is far di possessed by wealthy plate, and cash ca with the greatest eas perty as pictures, and carpets, elabor horses and carriage valued properly by a community. Consec farmers and working taxed up to the hilt,

sessions or

taxation altogether, while other parts
will be taxed considerably below their
real value.

but never more than 7,000,000 dollars tax on on that day. Carried by farmers, and true th establishing a most rigid system of who h taxation upon bonds, stocks, debts, cause money &c., the actual result has been product that the farmers' proportion of all wealth taxes collected is one-sixth greater somethi than it was; while the proportion of have t San Francisco is one-fourth less."

Mr. Shearman, who furnishes many other instructive instances of the ease with which the wealthy classes avoid this form of taxation, winds up his exhaustive exposition with these remarks:-" The testimony of assessors

REVENUE

If then a certain amount has to be
collected by a tax on property, say
£500,000, it is manifest that the
working classes, and especially the
farmers, will pay infinitely more than
their fair share, unless the wealthy
classes can be relied upon to honestly
state the true value of their possessions;
that they cannot be so relied upon, that
this unfair division of the burden of
taxation is the inevitable outcome of
a property tax, is proved by its history
in New Zealand and
in every state of
the American
Union. Thomas G.
Shearman, one of
the greatest author-
ities on such sub-
jects, states that
on an average, the
wealth of every
civilised country is
divided into three
nearly equal parts
-land, improve-
ments on land
and chattels, or
movable property.
Experience, how-
ever,shows that the
property tax uni-
versally fails to dis-
cover the bulk of the
latter kind of pro-
perty. In Boston
chattels are found
only to the extent
of 2 per cent., in
Ohio 15 per cent.,
in Minnesota and
California 20 per
cent., whereas in
each instance the
proportion ought
to have been
fifty per cent.
The returns from Ohio show that in
five years this prosperous State lost
4000 watches, 30,000 carriages, and
11,000,000 dollars in cash. The in-
roads of poverty were, of course, most
marked in the capital, Cincinnati, which
lost one-fourteenth of its watches,
nearly one-third of its carriages, one-
fourth of its cash, and one-eighth of its
credits. In California the adoption of
a new and more stringent system of
collection resulted, after six years, in
an apparent loss in San Francisco of
two-thirds of all its eash, and one-

ms of
be shifted

ne ostens

8 ennma

letter.
cattle, she
nd, what
arniture

Are the thi
As falling

the farm
a very
ealthy met

we omit a
ortgages

fliet on the

erty beld n is vis Any ordina

at with ths

Jewellery
e concealed
nd such
ly hanging
houses, t

an only

his int

m

also." act impro in ord somet made,

"A

throughout the Union is unanimous as
to the effect that a large and constantly
increasing proportion of personal tax
property escapes taxation, and that its f
more and more every year the bur- sinu
den falls upon widows and orphans, valu
or upon those who are too honest it is
or too ignorant to make out false no
returns. It is roughly correct to argu
say that the amount of perjury in- and
creases according to the square of the selv
increase of the efficiency in the law." mer

We trust that our good friend the that "Argus" will now understand why we of