The expenditure that will probably be incurred during the same period is as follows: The probable return to the states, after adding or deducting the balance brought forward from 1901-2, will, therefore, probably be New South Wales........ Victoria Queensland South Australia £ 2,662,903 1,878,534 858,300 Western Australia Tasmania Total The proportions of estimated revenue and expenditure borne by each state, are shown in the following table :— The proportions of population in each state to the total Commonwealth population, are-New South Wales, 35.83 per cent.; Victoria, 31-34; Queensland, 13:44; South Australia, 9:46; Western Australia, 5-42; and Tasmania, 4:51. It will be seen that, of the states, Western Australia alone has a revenue in excess of the proportion indicated by its population. CUSTOMS AND EXCISE. The collections under customs and excise during the year ended 30th June, 1901, were under divided control. From the 1st July, 1900, to the 31st December of that year, the collections were made by the State Governments, and for the latter half of the financial year, the administration was carried out by the Commonwealth Government. During the whole period the tariffs existing in the various states at the time of their union remained in force, and afford no indication of the revenue likely to be received under a uniform tariff. Nor do the collections for the year ended 30th June, 1902, settle satisfactorily this important question. In the first place three months of the twelve were under state tariffs and inter-state duties, and secondly, in some of the states it is believed that there were large importations in anticipation of the Federal Tariff affecting goods then free or subject to low duties. During the passage of the tariff through Parliament, material alterations were made in the rates proposed, and on that account also the revenue received gives no exact indication of the possibilities of the tariff as a revenue producing instrument. The following table shows the amounts of Customs and Excise collections for the years ended 30th June, 1901 and 1902, with the proportion thereof collected in each state, and the average per inhabitant: Besides the amount set down in the foregoing table as collected in Western Australia during the year ended 30th June, 1902, a sum of £201,569 was received by the Customs Department on interstate goods taxable under the special Western Australian tariff. Under the provisions of the 95th section of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, Western Australia is empowered for the first five years after the imposition of a uniform tariff to impose duties on goods passing into that state and not originally imported from beyond the limits of the Commonwealth. The duty so imposed on any goods, however, is not to exceed, during the first of such years, that chargeable under the law of Western Australia in force at the imposition of uniform duties, and shall not exceed during the second, third, fourth, and fifth of such years respectively, four-fifths, three-fifths, two-fifths, and one-fifth of such latter duty. This special tariff therefore ceases on the 9th October, 1906. If these collections had been included, the total revenue for the Commonwealth would have been £S,894,319, and for Western Australia £1,335,613, equal in the former case to £6 17s. 1d. per inhabitant, and in the latter to £2 6s. 5d. The passing of the uniform tariff has enabled the Federal Treasurer to estimate the revenue that may be expected from duties of customs and excise during the financial year ending 30th June, 1903. Excluding the receipts from the special Western Australian tariff, calculated to yield £225,000, the estimated collections will be as follows: Grouping the receipts according to the divisions of the tariff, the estimated return under each head will be-- The foregoing estimated revenue is equal to £2 5s. 4d. the rates for each state being If the yield from its special tariff had been included the rate for Western Australia would be £6 11s. 5d., and for the Commonwealth, £2 6s. 6d. Western Australia stands far above any of the other states in regard to revenue per inhabitant, and in total revenue it exceeds Tasmania and South Australia, and equals Queensland. This position it owes to the large consuming power of its population, a population consisting very largely of adult males receiving higher wages than those paid in any other state. The proportion in which the various states have contributed, and may be expected to contribute to the Commonwealth tariff, is a question of much interest, as under the book-keeping provisions of the Constitution the return made to each state depends upon its contribution to the revenue. The following is a statement of the proportions of customs and excise collected in each state for the nine months of the financial year 1902, during which the uniform tariff was in operation, and the proportions estimated by the Treasurer during the year ended June 1903; in order to throw further light on the question the proportion of population in each state to the total population of the Commonwealth is also given. The chief element in determining the amount of revenue to be raised by the Cominonwealth was the necessities of the various states, and so long as those necessities exist a sum approximating to what is now obtained will need to be raised, but it can hardly be supposed that Australia will long continue to raise as large a revenue as £2 5s. 4d. per inhabitant from a customs tariff containing so large a free list, embracing as it does imports amounting to £10,257,000 out of a total import of general merchandise of £38,503,000. Although indirectly connected with the question of the Commonwealth tariff, the returns obtained in past years from customs and excise by the states under their local tariffs are worth recording, It will be found from a consideration of the subsequent tables that the rate per inhabitant has varied greatly, not only in a comparison of the different states but for the same state in different years. This variation arises from diverse causes. First, the influence of good or bad times on the producing power of the people is directly felt in the customs collections, although the rise or fall of the rate per inhabitant is not always a safe indication of such influence. Certain states, notably Queensland and Western Australia, grow insufficient agricultural produce for their own requirements, and in times past a good season-since it enabled those states to depend to a greater extent on their own resources-meant a decrease in the revenue from the importation of agricultural produce. Similar effects have also been felt in regard to revenue derived from live stock and other forms of produce. It also must be remembered that for many years the states have been systematic borrowers from the London market, while they have been the recipients of much money sent for investment by private persons. As loans of all descriptions reach the borrowing country in the form of goods, and a considerable proportion of the importations is the subject of taxation, years of lavish borrowing are naturally years of large revenue collections, and coincident with the cessation of a flow of foreign capital there is a decrease in customs revenue. Furthermore, there have been extensive alterations in the tariffs affecting the revenue during the years which the following table covers. In New South Wales, in 1891 and 1895, and in Western Australia, in 1893 and 1896, radical tariff changes were made, and in other years minor alterations took place in nearly all the other states. To these changes is chiefly attributable any sharp rise or fall in the rate of revenue per inhabitant. Speaking generally the customs revenue per inhabitant has tended to decline, especially when the tariffs are high, unless adjusted from time to time to meet the decline, for, apart from the speciflc causes mentioned above, other effective, if less obtrusive, influences are at work. Year by year the industries of the states are being developed, and the local producer is acquiring a firm hold on the domestic markets. Except in drought years little revenue will be received from duties on agricultural produce, as such produce will not be imported from abroad, and many descriptions of manufactured |
