The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1894. TRADE AND TAXATION.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 343, 19 June 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1894. TRADE AND TAXATION.

The news that the banks have reduced the rates of interest on fixed deposits and the rate for purchasing bills may be accepted as an indication that a charge for the better is near at hand in the money njarket. With the additional facilities for business which will now almost certainly be extended to the mercantile community, on whose successful operations the legitimate profits of all banks so largely depend, we may expect to see a revival of com mercial activity in all its branches and ramifications. Of course, as far as New Zealand is concerned, the issue of the coming session of Parliament will, in this connection, have much influence for good or evil. The idea prevails to a considerable extent among those engaged in agricultural or pastoral pursuits perfectly justified by their past experiences, that heavier burdens will yet be put on the shoulders of the farmers in the way of direct or indirect taxation in order that the unemployed difficulty may be removed at their cost. The mo<t direct hint in that direction has been given by the Premier, who has formed the opinion that the Jocal bodies should lind work for the unemployed, whether the said local bodies want work done or not. Now, the local bodies, in this district especially, have taxed themselves to the utmost to open up the country by making good roads, and it would be specially hard on them to be forced to undertake new public works which would be useless, and an extra tax on them as ratepayers. If on the other hand Ministers were to give the country a little " political rest " and allow the commercial and farming classes to develop its possibilities without irksome interferences, there is every reason to hope a new era would open when the unemployed who are now so much in evidence, would gradually and without fuss be absorbed among the industrial class. Wo have had quite enough of " Catch Vote " legislation and the greatest boon to the colony would be if for the next three years no new Bills were introduced at all, but the whole attention of both Houses of Parliament devoted to the task of making the existing Jaws more intelligible and easier to work. Let them study how to make life less of a ! burden to the real workers iv the country by reducing taxation, and at the sarue time abstain irom holding out threats against those who have acquired a little property for themselves by industry and thrift. Let them do their share to restore public confidence and they will do good work towards the revival of trade and all kinds of industry now almost moribund.