The "Overtaxed” Tongan

Scrutiny of Conditions in the Group

From Our Own Correspondent

NUKUALOFA, January 20.

IS the Tongan just taxed or over taxed?

Since the appearance of two letters in the No. 4 issue of the P.I.M. on this all-important subject, the question has motived many of the inhabitants here into interesting, if at times heated, dis cussions. I shall be obliged if you will allow me to refer to certain misrepre sentations contained in the aforesaid correspondence and, by so doing, hope without recourse to either rancour or bitterness to lead Tonga Ma Tonga and Ikai Ka Ka to a more optimistic view of the actual state of the Tongan nat ive.

I will treat shortly with T.M.T. As a basis I will quote my statement which appeared in P.I.M. No. 2 regarding a Tongan whose annual average return from his section for copra works out at about £55. I wrote that every year, out of that return, he had contributed to the Treasury 54/- for taxes and land rental, this being roughly 5 per cent, of the monetary copra productiveness of the soil that the Crown gave to him.

In dealing with this perfectly clear “statement of fact,” T.M.T. writes, inter alia: “Your readers are left to infer that this annual contribution consti tutes the whole burden he has to bear.”

Nonsense! Why should T.M.T. imag ine that intelligent readers will infer anything so preposterous? In my art icle I stated: “On the whole this typ ical native is, I think, quite contented with his lot.”

You observe the impression was gained by his general demeanour; of course, he may have disguised many burdens under a vile cloak of seeming happiness—he may have been burdened with a nagging wife —and you must remember that I did say he was slightly worried about something.

But now let us get on to the serious article and study the figures that varie gate the effort of Ikai Ka Ka. Firstly, he agrees with me fairly well in the

matter of native taxes, but then side steps and apparently wants me to clas sify and tabulate such things as duties, court fees, fines, licenses and those hundred and one items that go to make up a country’s revenue. He must be referred to the estimates for such information—I know the binding is bad and the contents dull in the ex treme, but the Government has made a fairly efficient attempt to classify its revenue under neat little headings.

No Unemployment In Tonga

I take exception to the inference con tained in his third paragraph that the natives are discontented and that the kingdom is not prosperous. Tonga is definitely one of the very few coun tries in the world at the present time that has no unemployment: that has no public debt, and that can show (pei statistics) a value of exports that far exceed her imports. The copra ex ported in the years 1928-29 exceeded the previous two years by 7,287 tons.

I.K.K. says off-handedly that “hun dreds of taxpayers do not possess land.”

This is a sweeping and aggravating statement, because you can’t pin him down. Of the 6,000 taxpayers how many hundreds are without property? Such an unsupported statement must tend

I.K.K., we add to this sum 121 per cent, duty and say 71 per cent, for freight, insurance, etc., thus arriving at an approximate landed cost of £204,000.

Now, the trader adds to his landed cost anything from 20 per cent, to 60 per cent., according to the nature of the commodity for sale, but we will assume that the average amount added, to cover his “overhead” and give him a fair profit is 33 1-3 per cent., and we get a figure of £272,000.

From this sum, I.K.K. reveals that the Europeans absorb about one-tenth, so it can be reduced to £245,000. I.K.K. infers that the native uses up this bal ance each year, but I think we can safely deduct from £40,000 to £50,000 for local purchases made by the Govern ment and the Missions, and for stocks devoted to the traders’ internal re quirements in renovating their existing stores, and absorbed in directions not affecting the native. If this is agreed to the traders are still left with say £200,000. I will admit that the traders during the past few years have not been increasing stocks and, that being so, will concede that the natives do purchase from the traders £200,000 in goods annually (£7/14/- per head of the population).

Now, on top of this, I.K.K. tells us that the Government requires some £84,000.

Mission Collections

Is this all? No, there is still another absorbing channel. And why is it that these effusions, which appear from time to time in oversea papers, eschew any mention of Mission collections?

There is no apparent reason for this

£6 000 per annum into interest-bearing investments.

And now, having got this far, may we produce a tentative statement:

Disbursements

To Trading Concerns £200,000 „ Native Officials 27,000 European Officials 20,000 „ Public Works 17,000 Education, Medical. Health, etc. 20,000 „ Upkeep of all Tongan Missions 30,000 „ Amusements 10,000 Annually invested .. ... 6,000 £330,000

Receipts

By Copra £210,000 Emoluments from Government 27,000 Emoluments from Missions.. .. 15,000 Trading wages and commissions 40,000 „ European land rentals and sundry receipts 30,000 „ Interest on National Investments 8,000 £330,000 So, in terms of decimals, the Ton gans’ money is roughly absorbed as follows: By traders, 60 per cent.; Native offi cials, 8 per cent.; European officials, 6 per cent.; Public Works, 5 per cent.; other charges, 6 per cent.; Missions, 9 per cent.; amusements, 4 per cent.

In the various methods employed to measure a nation’s income, there can be generally found loopholes admitting argument, for it is a profoundly true dictum that “while the income of an individual can be accurately measured in money, the income of a nation seems at times to elude all attempts at meas urement.”

I.K.K.’s measure is, I think, ridicu lously low, but anyone can make an attempt from the figures to fix the income to suit himself. I should like though, to draw the attention of both Tonga Ma Tonga and Ikai Ka Ka to what appears to be an extraordinary coincidence. If we accept the receipts as low as £330,000, and if we agree that 6.000 taxpayers (and families) really do exist, we then discover that the average taxpayer seems to pull in £55 a year. Does this in any way absolve my “typical Tongan friend?” You know he has been somewhat under a cloud since he had the temerity to “tell the world” that he made £55 a year; and he is a decent old chap.

Furthermore, on scanning the fig ures, the “oppressive” old Government does not appear to bear so heavily on the “unfortunate” native after all, yet (because I, too, dislike Governments, and don’t wish to embarass T.M.T and I.K.K ) I won’t press the point—I just mention it.

Need For “Intensive Culti

Vation”

And now I definitely state that, whereas the Tongan as a property holder has nothing much to fear, it is incumbent on the trading community (through their Chamber of Commerce?) to bring at least one outstanding fact to the notice of the Government’s Executive. It is certain that if the Tongan gets less value from his hold ing he will naturally be forced to re duce his purchases from the traders, and, if the slump continues for any length of time, some of the traders will have to close up.

In effect, if his return from his sec tion drops 50 per cent, the native, in stead of purchasing £200,000 in goods each year, will cut his purchases by half. Mary will have to cut out silks and satins and wear prints, and John nie will have to replace his cashmere vala with white calico. The Tongan can be reduced to the absolute essen tials of life and still be happy. But the traders must suffer.

I recommend that they impress the Government with the necessity for in tensive cultivation—let the slogan be "Intensive Cultivation.” The native is satisfied with the return he gets from his plot because it is sufficient for his wants—he has generally no ambition to make money—but it is nationally un safe at the present time for a country to have about half its acreage non producing.

Asiatics Looking South

If the native won’t take up more land then the Government should be persuaded to grant better facilities to Europeans to obtain leases and thus increase production. It has been point ed out that there are 915,000,000 Asi atics looking to the south for expan sion. and a recent publication reminds us that “Effective occupation is the only valid title by which any nation can hope to keep its territories intact.”

If, instead of railing at the Govern ment for allegedly oppressing the nat ive, such contributors as T.M.T. and I.K.K. made a genuine endeavour to move the Government in the direction indicated, they may be the means of giving the little kingdom real service.