1885.] the Taxation of the Gape Colony, 49 



colonies, for the later date, are from the Australasian, those for the 

 earlier one are from the Australian Year Book, published by the 

 Government Statist of Victoria. It is worth noticing that in Queens- 

 land, which is taken to be a prosperous colony, the taxation per head 

 is higher than the very heavy rate in New Zealand, where the 

 finances exhibit considerable embarrassment. In comparing the 

 figures for Grreat Britain, it must not be forgotten that a large 

 part of the taxation which in colonies is assumed by the general 

 Government, is in that country thrown on localities ; and any compari- 

 son of taxation would not be complete without taking this into 

 consideration. I regret that no materials exist in Cape Town for 

 making this comparison, and it is still more unfortunate that there are 

 no figures from which we can venture to estimate our own position as 

 compared with other colonies. We are only able to give a rough 

 guess at the number of our population. I think, including Griqualand 

 West and the Transkei, this may be taken to be 1,250,000, of whom 

 340,000 are European and 910,000 are native. Taking certain items 

 of our taxation, such as Customs, Excise, and House Duty as common 

 to the whole population, it would for these three heads, dividing the 

 assumed population, give for 1884-1885 — 



Customs . . . . . . . . £1,073,939 



House Duty .. .. .. 90,068 



Excise .. .. .. .. 94,671 



£1,258,678 



— rather more than 20s. per head, and taking the remainder as being 

 paid exclusively by the European community, viz. : — 



Transfer Duty 



£93,551 



Auction Duty 



18,592 



Succession Duty . . 



12,999 



Stamped Licences . . 



125,542 



Blank Stamps 



123,993 



Bank Note Duty . . 



9,980 



Total .. .. £384,657 



we get per head of European taxation, £1 2s. 6d., which would work 

 out at a taxation of £2 2s. 7d. per head for each European, and about 

 20s. for each native. But the assumptions in any attempt to arrive at 

 a result are so large, that I feel I ought to apologise for having taken 

 up your time by this attempt to find a basis for comparison. 



I will now go on to a table which shews the proportion borne by 

 the Customs duties to the imports entered for consumption, which is, 

 I think, deserving of careful consideration. I should explain that the 

 column of merchandise only refers to the imports, less Government 

 material, which afford, I think, a more legitimate basis for judging 

 the effect of any tariff than the gross sum of imports, including such 

 material. [See Table C] 



The figures in this table speak for themselves, and set forth, with a 

 clearness which is almost startling, the effect of our taxation through 

 the Customs on the means of the community. It will be noticed that 

 while in 1877 the import amounted to 13*6 per cent, of the value of 

 the goods entered for consumption, in the last financial period this 



