NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1957, 2 June 1880, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND.

fPEBSS ABSOOIATTOK. ( WANGANUI, June 2. The Property TaxA public meeting has been -called here to protest against the Property Tax. INVERCARGILL, June 2. Address to Constituents. Mr Shanks advertises his address to his constituents, apologising for want of time to address the numerous centres in the Mataura district. He makes no promise but a general one to do the beet for the district and the colony. He left for Wellington yesterday, licensing I CourtThe Licensing Court yesterday refused two applications from present holders because they had not rebuilt as cautioned last year. PresentationMr W. R. Oarruthers, late Assistant Resident and Locomotive Engineer, has been presented with a watch and a purse of sovereigns. AUCKLAND, June 1. The Harbour Board. At a meeting of the Harbor Board the engineer reported the damage to the wharf by the City of Sydney at £2BO. Captain Dearborn accounts for the accident through the steamer not having sufficient water. Captain Burgess wrote to the Board, asking them to erect a light on Modan Island. The matter was referred to Wellington. The secretary of the Shipwrights’Associatcd Society wrote,complaining that the chairman of the Harbor Board, in furtherance of his desire to injure the society, had taken some of his employes from work in hand in order to effect repairs to the Board’s barges, thus denying employment to the men of the society, who had wives and families dependant upon them for support. The letter was referred to the works committee. The Temperance Movement. The Temperance people opposed the new publichouses at the Licensing Court to-day, anrl succeeded in defeating the applications for houses at Arch Hill and the Great North road. WANGANUI, June 1. Steeplechasiag. Fresh weights for the Wanganui steeplechase will be published, as the handicapper overlooked the fact that the races wore to be run under the Grand National rules, which provide that the lowest weight shall not be below lOst. WELLINGTON, June 1. Fatal AccidentStephen Stockbridge, a carter, was killed to-day by falling off a dray. He was thirtyfive years of age, and in the employ of Mr Fitohett, to whose farm he was taking a load of grain. An inquest will bo held tomorrow. City Auditors. Messrs Widdop and H. Elliott were elected oity auditors to-day. NELSON, June 1. Accidentally DrownedThe body of John Kruse, supposed to be drowned in the Waimea river, was discovered on Sunday about a mile and a half below where he attempted to ford. An inquest was held last night at Appleby, when a verdict “ Accidentally drowned ” was returned. Deceased leaves a wife and several young children. REEFTON, June 1. Mr R. Reeves* Views. Mr Richard Reeves addressed a meeting of electors yesterday evening. He urged the prosecution of railway communication between the Bast and West Coasts via Warmai as easily constructed and opening a valuable country. He advocated the completion of the Nelson and Beefton road and bridging the rivers. Ho condemned the Property Tax, and defended the Grey Ministry and said that they were not responsible for the depression and decreased revenue. CAM ABU, June 1. Customs Duties. The customs duties collected at the port of Oamaru during the month of May amounted to £1456 13s. Hew ElectorsEight hundred and fifty new electors have teg-sterol their names during the last month. DUNEDIN, June 1. Resolutions on TaxationAt the Chamber of Commerce to-day in reference to the property tax, Mr R. Wilson moved—“ That this Chamber is of opinion that granting the necessity of a property tax in the present condition of the colonial finances, it is greatly to be desired that it should be made to bear equally on every class of the community, and be rendered ns little vexatious as possible in its mode of collection, and that to this end (1) the exemptions should be reduced to £2OO of value in money or in moveable property; (2) that all personal clothing, trinkets, and working-men’s tools of trade should be specially exempted ; (3) that each person should be required to make only one return to the Government to cover all his property within the colony.” The Chamber by a large majority resolved that in view of the necessity for increased taxation, as well as reduced expenditure, the tea and sugar duties should be increased to their original amount; that a tax of 6i per gallon be levied on colonial beer ; that education fees be reimposed, and that all subsidies to local bodies should cease as from the end of the current financial year ; and further, that the property tax be repealed. INVERCARGILL, Jons 1. Licensing Court. At the Licensing Court to day one new application was granted. Two licenses of hotels in town were refused renewals on f'e ground of total insufficiency of accommodation and the bench requested the police to notify to holders of licenses that the wooden hotels in the principal thoroughfares must be rebuilt in less inflammable materials, otherwise there was a probability of the licenses being refused at next sitting of the Court. This has caused quite a flutter amongst the publicans. Two of the largest hotels in town —the Prince of Wales and Southland Club —are of wood, while many others in populous neighborhoods are of the same material.