1SSU 



and W. D. Stewart 



The New Zealand government is not hampered by any consti- 

 tutional restrictions as to the purpose for which taxation may be 

 levied, nor is there any prohibition of 'class legislation nor any 

 clause in the Constitution Act forbidding the taking of private 

 property for public purposes without due process of law, although 

 as a matter of fact this is never done. The government has a 

 free hand. It may and does levy duties on imports from Great 

 Britain and other parts of the Empire ; it imposes taxes not only 

 for revenue, but also as a means to social reform ; and many of 

 its laws, as the graduated land tax, would doubtless be regarded 

 as class legislation by American courts. It goes without saying 

 that cities, boroughs, counties, and the other local governing 

 bodies derive their power to tax, as well as all their other powers, 

 from the general government, which in its turn derives its powers 

 from the Imperial government. 



The following are the chief heads of revenue and expenditure 

 for the year 1907-8 of the Consolidated Fund, which includes 

 the revenue and expenditure of the post and telegraph depart- 

 ment and the railway department, but not that of the other gov- 

 ernmental enterprises, for which there are separate accounts. 



2=;o 



