The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1880-12-18

"The white man here pays taxes which
rave been voted away at the rate of over
a million a year, chiefly by irresponsible
members who do not represent wealth or
intelligence" Editorial Correspondence
in Southern Workman, Nov. 1880.
Two questions Immediately occur to the
mind on the perusing the above. These
are % From what sources is the revenue Of
his Kingdom derived ? and (2) For whose
benefit is it spent? IF every man in the
country were taxed according to his means,
it is probably that the "white" man would
be called upon to pay q considerable pro-
portion of the whole. The "white' man has
been provident enough to acquire the land
which native chiefs once held, and every
year adds to its value. The money in
vested in sugar plantations belongs chiefly
to "white" men. A large part OF the
stock OF imported merchandise, and no
small share of the really valuable horses
and cattle and of the sheep that are in the
country, are also the property of " white"
men. If the evenu of the Kingdom were
raised in the same manner as that of the
city and county of San Francisco, for in
stance, these men would pay a considerable
share of it. Under the existing system
they do not. Here as in so many other
burdens of the state. We have indeed a
Real Estate Tax and q Personal Property
Tax, but these imposts are so light that
even now they yield only one-sixth of the
revenue. 1T Is HOJ H1dny years SlnCe the
horse tax chiefly paid by natives, actually
yielded more than both of them.+ For the
biennia period ending March last, these
direct taxes yielded S299, $50. II, and the
Finance Minister in his estimates of re-
venue for the current period only put them
down at $125, 600, and Sl4O,O 900 respectively.
We have other forms of direct taxation,
but it is by these alone that the rich paw in
proportion to their riches. The wretehed
weed which the native is content to call q
horse pays the same tax as the white"
mans fine carriage horse, his brood
mare come of the best Kentucky blood, or
the fastest trotter that ever won q race at
Kapiolani Park. The same inequality
run though the whole range of our taxes.
The man who does a small business pays as
heavy q license fee as his neighbor who
does a large one of like kind. The poll-tax is
levied on rich and poor alike and produces
one-fourth as much as the tax on Real
Estates. Even the o tax is but another
poll-tax,-a tax which in every other
try under the sun is made a burden upon
real estate. Then we have the Customs
Duties. The largest item on these is de-
rived from alcoholic liquors and comes
mainly from the pockets Of the working
classes, the chief consumers, only a proper
aiians are by law prohibited from cOntri-
outing TO this branch of the revenue, but
We know only too we'll that thew insist on
paying their share surreptitiously. 1t is
Lot ~ iulPoftIeFi Hno Is charged % cents a
bottle duty for spirits but the poor con-
sumner who pays $500 a bottle, who actual
ly. pays the tax into the treasury, All
other customs duties, being paid by the
consumers, are paid by "whfteU men i'm
any larger proportion than by men of other
colors only to the extent that they choose
to live more luxuriously. The whole re-
from import duties outside those
levied on liquors is abou S175, 600 per an
num-, and, looking to their respective num-
bers, the white" men probably pay about
of revenue which has to be remembered
the income from Government Lands
lands which belonged to a native King,
who voluntarily made them owe for the
benefit of the nation. From this source