THE GOLD DUTY

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 244, 14 July 1874, Page 5

THE GOLD DUTY

To the Editor of the Cromwell Argus. Sir, — The question of Gold Duty is always cropping up, and it seems to be the whole stock-in-trade of every goldfields stump orator and would-be politician : (it is surprising to me that they have not long ago got or induced someone else to get something original.) The Land ques-

tion wont down for a long tirao in Victoria, and with it the extermination of squatters. But these two questions may fairly be left for future discussion, and are of far more vital importance than the first. I will now confine myself to the question of the gold duty ; and would ask those individuals who so bitterly complain about it, how much it affects them ? or are they making a noise about it purely on philanthropic principles ? Or is it to catch the ear or attract the notice of men who do not give the matter that amount of consideration it demands ? ~ It is a well-known fact that if public works are to he carried on in the country, it will take money to do it, and revenue must be raised in some way or another ; and it should be the duty of all wise politicians to study to raise it in the most economical manner, and at the same time in the most equitable. Now, the gold duty in the Colonies seems to be taking the place of the income tax or property tax in the old country : the man who gets no gold has no duty to pay ; the man who has no income ought not to complain of the income tax. If this complaint came from some of the companies who are expending lots of money in trying to develop the resources of the district, and are barely paying their way, it might be listened to. (1 mentioned this to my mate, and he says, “ You old fool, if they get any gold worth spe iking about, they won’t say a word 'about duty, and if they don’t it can’t hurt them.”) If a fair share of the public revenue is laid out in the district to make roads to the mines, thereby reducing the cost of extracting the gold from quartz, or enabling people to make homes for themselves on the waste lands of the Crown by getting the Crown tenants off, I say it would be of far more permanent benefit to the district than this gold question. The class of men now on the diggings is far different to that of tan years ago. Every one seems inclined to settle down, and those who are dissatisfied and leave, generally come back wiser men. and feel inclined to make the district their home. What 1 would like to see is the goldfields population put on a par with capitalists, especially absentee ones, who occupy the Crown lands—(squatters). I see the late Secretary for Goldfields brought forward a motion about not selling Crown lands.

It was a question which cropped up in Victoria about fifteen years since. Ido not know what his motive may have been in the matter, but at any rate I am inclined to think with him that it would be very injudicious to part with the fee simple of a country like Otago, which I have every reason to believe is all more or less auriferous ; and as population comes into it, to coop them up on the old diggings, or compel them to accept such a rate of wages as the proprietors of the land may offer them. —I am, &c., Fossicker.