THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 116, 22 June 1880, Page 2

THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

The debate dragged on on Friday night .again, Colonel Trimble defending the Property Tax as against the Land Tax, and holding that no exemptions should be made in the taxation of laud, neither Maori, European, nor Crown. He denounced the Native Lands Purchase Department as a great blot on our civilisation, and the sooner it was swept away the better. He defended the maintenance of an armed force on the West Coast until the country was opened up. Mr. Ballance followed, urging a land tax in lieu of a property tax, and held that there had been no saving, but an increase of expenditure, despite the outcry. He attributed the disarrangement of the colony’s finances to the falling-offin land sales, and a similar alling-off had taken place in all the Australian Colonies. He said the making up of the railway accounts to March showed the late Government in a' false light, for it showed the year's work without the most profitable season—when the grain traffic was on. He deprecated the withdrawal of the subsidies, which would press hard on some districts. Mr. Reader Wood said he thought the whole question before the House in this debate was—who was to be in power. There was really no other question. Both sides were agreed as to the colony’s difficult position, and Government did not put it forward that the proposals they were making were a blessing to the colony, but were a stern necessity. After Mr. Pyke and Dr. Wallis had spoken in favor of the No-confidence motion, the House adjourned at 12.30.