Taxation in Nczv Zealand 5 



years. In ICS97-98 the general and local taxes were only £4.4 

 ($21.38) per head of the total population. This extraordinary 

 increase in revenue has been due chiefly to the great prosperity 

 of the Dominion during the past ten or twelve years. 



CUSTOMS AND EXCISE 



The subject of excise may be dismissed in a word. There is 

 an excise duty on beer, which yielded £113,973 in the years 1907-9. 

 The manufacture of spirits is prohibited, but the import duties 

 on spirits yield a large revenue. In the year 1906-7, £304,733 

 was derived from this source. Licenses for the sale of intoxi- 

 cating liquors are granted by the local bodies. In the year 1906-7 

 the local bodies derived £48,865 from this source, which yielded 

 £53,635 in the year 1896-97. The revenue from licenses is de- 

 clining, chiefly because of the spread of local prohibition under 

 "The Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act, 1893." However, the 

 consumption per head of alcoholic liquors has somewhat in- 

 creased, probably because of the general prosperity of the people. 1 



The customs duties are the government's chief source of rev- 

 enue, yielding 66 per cent of the total amount derived from tax- 

 ation. The foreign commerce of New Zealand is very important. 

 The imports for the year 1907 were valued at £17,304,861 

 ($84,000,000), being £18 ($87) per head of the European popula- 

 tion. The revenue derived from customs in the fiscal year 1907-8 

 was £3,103,567, being 18 per cent of the value of the imports and 

 about £3.26 ($15.84) per head of the population. It is worth 

 noting that in the year 1906-7 the imports of the United States 

 were valued at $1,434,421,425 (£300,000,000), being about $17 

 (£3.5) per head of the population, and that the customs revenue 

 was $332,233,363 (£69,000,000), or 23 per cent of the value of 

 the imports, and only about $4 (£0.8) per head, estimating the 

 population at 85,000,000. 



The history- of the tariff may be divided roughly into three 

 periods. During the first of these periods, extending from the 

 establishment of constitutional government in 1854 until about 



1 Year-book, 1908, p. 395. 



253 



