II. — Taxation in New Zealand 



BY JAMES EDWARD LE ROSSIGNOL AND WILLIAM DOWNIE STEWART 

 A. TAXATION BY THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT 



The New Zealand government is different from both the Fed- 

 eral and the State governments of the United States in that the 

 power to levy taxes of all kinds is practically unrestricted. The- 

 oretically, the British government, in the exercise of its supreme 

 legislative authority, has the right to tax all parts of the Empire, 

 but the right is never exercised. The principle established by the 

 American Revolution, that there shall be no taxation without 

 representation, still bears fruit in the practical autonomy that 

 New Zealand and the other self-governing dependencies enjoy. 



Under the Constitution Act of 1852, 1 certain sums were made 

 payable to the British government for defraying the salaries of 

 the governor, the crown ministers, and the judges, and the list 

 of these is known as the Civil List, but as power was given to 

 the New Zealand Parliament to alter these amounts, with the 

 consent of the British government, and as this power has been 

 frequently exercised, and the Imperial government has never 

 withheld its consent, the taxation thereby imposed is merely nom- 

 inal and such as the Dominion requires to impose in its own 

 interests. 



It should also be stated that certain bills dealing with taxation, 

 such as bills imposing differential duties which bestow excep- 

 tional advantages upon foreign over British trade, and bills which 

 appear to be inconsistent with Imperial treaties, must be reserved 

 for the approval of the Imperial government ; otherwise the Do- 

 minion is free to regulate its commercial policy and its entire 

 system of taxation as it sees fit. 2 



*15 and 16 Vict, cap. 72. 



2 The Constitution and Government of New Zealand, Wellington, 1896. 



University Studies, Vol. IX, No. 3 July 1909. 



249 



