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Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 25, 27 August 1891, Page 2

Fob the month, ending August 13th, the Labor Bureau distributed men for employment as follows : — To Masterton, 51 ; Feilding, 55 ; Palmerston, 23 ; Woodville, 11 4 Wanganui, 48 ; Eketahuna, 23 ; Hunterville, 11 ; Pahiatua, 33 ; Napier, 17 ; Featherston, 15 ; Eltham, 26 ; Otaki, 28 ; Carterton, 9 ; Manutahi, 41 ; Kaiiwi, 27 ; Levin, Inglewood, Greytown, I Hawera, &c, '22 ; Hunterville railway works, 55 ; Government road works, 12 ; to, the Christchurch Agency of the Bureau, 49 ; to Dunedin ditto, 56. The total number forwarded by the Bureau in the month, was 637. In addition to these, 408 man are employed upon Government relief works in Otago, Canterbury, and Wellington, and 63 upon co-operative railway contracts in the South Island, making a total of 1108 men dealt with by the Bureau. In connection with the above we would suggest that for the future each, applicant for assistance should be supplied with a voucher or pass from the Bureau, giving full particulars as to name and general appearance, so that when anyone of them refuses or shirks work when offered or undertaken, the fact may be reported to the authorities. We say openly that in several cases men have succeeded* in obtaining assistance from the Bureau on their representations, of being bushmen or laborers, when tja&jj; were neither one nor the other. People 1 living in the country are only too willing to give employment, and lend their aid to relieve the sick or distressed, but they do not desire to be over -run with a crowd of sturdy beggars feom the towns.

We are informed that the totalisator tax is to be fixed at 1£ per cent; and;, it will be imposed by an, amendment of the Stamp Act. Power will be given to Metropolitan Clubs to collect the tax for the smaller clubs. The Premier says that the £10,000, which he intimated in the Financial Statement as required from this source, will be obtained under the reduced percentage of investments. The idea of giving power to the* Metropolitan Clubs to collect the tax from the smaller ones appears to us perfectly absurd, for these reasons : The so-called Metropolitan Clubs have no legal standing whatever, and, therefore, could not enforce the collection of the tax should one of the " smaller clubs" decline, or be unable to pay, and last, but not least, the latter might object to the intervention of " middlemen" of any kind whatever. The simplest plan would be for the> tax to be collected by the nearest postmaster, not later than three days after the last day of the races. This would obviate any possibility of the " smaller clubs" 'haying to pay in the event of a Metropolitan Club failing to meet its engagements, while, at the same time, it would relieve the latter of any kind of responsibility, a thing they are aot always capable of accepting.