46 Mr. Merriman^ Some Bemarks on [Nov. 25, 



SOME EEMAEKS ON THE TAXATION OF THE CAPE 



COLONY. 



By Mr. John X. Merriman, M.L.A. 



It is more than five years ago since I was permitted to lay before 

 this Society some figures regarding the statistics of the Colony. I 

 think that few will dispute, that at the present time a somewhat 

 similar examination into our resources is peculiarly needed ; and I 

 am sure that there are none who will not join me in deploring that 

 our material at hand for doing anything of the kind is so lamentably 

 scanty. We stand almost alone among the more important British 

 Colonies in our neglect of statistics, and in our lack of that kind of 

 information without which it is almost impossible to discharge many 

 of the functions of Government. We have no census or bare enumer- 

 ation even of the population, that has the faintest pretension to 

 accuracy, to say nothing of any means of forming any estimate of the 

 value and the sources of our productions ; and quotations are often 

 made in support of legislation, and perhaps measures are founded on 

 data, which are worse than merely valueless, in being positively 

 misleading. Such ignorance might be tolerated at a time when our 

 burdens were light, and when we were advancing so fast along the 

 high road of prosperity that a mistake here or there was of little 

 consequence ; but at a time like the present, when the hand of taxa- 

 tion is heavy upon us, and when the question of wsljs and means is 

 most uncomfortably prominent, a neglect of statistical research 

 increases to a very sensible degree the inconvenience and distress 

 which result from burdens badly adjusted, or from financial measures 

 undertaken in haphazard ignorance of their probable effect. 



I make these remarks, not with any intention of imputing blame ; 

 for I am afraid that a distribution of it would be pretty impartial ; 

 but because I wish to take the opportunity of recording the opini'in, 

 which will, I hope, be endorsed by the Society, that one of the most 

 pressing necessities of this Colony, and one of the measures that is 

 indispensable to its recovery from the present depression, is a more 

 careful attention to statistics of every kind, and especially to compara- 

 tive statistics, which will enable us to measure, not only our own 

 position with regard to the past, but also our relation to other countries 

 and colonies. The present time is very notable as marking a tran- 

 sition stage in the economical progress of the Colony which has 

 affected, and must affect it in every direction commercially, financially, 

 and perhaps more than either in that branch of Grovernment which 

 consists in adjusting the burdens of taxation, I will tr}- to explain 

 briefly what I mean. We have now just finished those great public 

 works begun in 1873, which, while there will be very few found to 

 contest their utility and necessity, have undoubtedly added enor- 

 mously to the public liabilities of the country. It is to be hoped that 

 we have also come to an end of those wars which form the other great 

 cause of our debt. Speaking generally, we may say that the era of 

 borrowing, which has been so marked a feature of our economical 

 progress, has come to an end ; and that in the immediate future we 

 shall have to do without that fictitious addition to tlie colonial 

 resources which springs from borrowed money, and we shall have to 

 set ourselves resolutely to the more unpleasant task of providing for 



