THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1868.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 452, 5 December 1868, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1868.

A question was put to Mr Harrison, at the nieetiug on Wednesday 'evening last, which' wsis rather out of place, considering thai, hti was not mklressiug the meeting in his capacity of member pf the Geueral Assembly, but onjy as a candidate for re-electipn to the County Council. Still, the fact of such a question having been put leads to the idea that it is supposed by 'some of the electors to have a bearing upon Mr Harrison's fitness as their representative in the County Council. ' The question we refer to is the one relating to the

course which Mr Harrison took upon ■the financial proposals of the Ministry. Mr Ashton asked that gentleman " why did you agree to accept £15,000 for Westland, instead of £30,000." The explanation given, although clear enough, to those who are thoroughly acquainted with the history of the List session of Parliament, was necessarily hardly sufficiently explicit to those who have not taken the trouble to possess, themselves of that information. It is with the view of making the matter more intelligible to the general public; that we now maice the attempt to supplement Mr Harrison's explanation by a more detailed one than he had the opportunity of affording to the meeting on Wednesday evening. In order to make ourselves more intelligible we will commence by describing the sources from which the County of Westland, in common with the other Provinces of New Zealand, derives its revenues. First, there are its strictly local revenues, viz.: — Proceeds o,f Jand t sa;les, miners' rights, business and publicans' licenses, dog tax, and gqld duty. .Secondly, its share of what is .known as the Consolidated Revenue of the Colony, .viz.: — Customs duties, fees and fives in Wardens' and Resident Magistrate's Courts, and stamp duties. According to the Public Revenues Act, of 186-7, the share of the Consolidated Revenue allotted to the Provinces .(and to the County) is one •half, but this half has first to bear all the cost of General Government departments in the Province or County, and the interest and sinking fund on the local loans. The balauce, if any, is available for appropriation for local purposes. This division of the Colonial I'eveuue Las the effect of requiring the General Government, whenever the necessities of the Colony require an extra outlay on the public service, to raise £2 for every pound really required — -simply because the Provinces must have half the proceeds of taxation. So long as the Provinces expended their share profitably in developing the resources of the Colony no harm would ensue ; but the fact has been the opposite ; the Provinces have not properly expended their moiety, and the result has been that most thinkiug financiers and politicians in the Colony have come to the opinion that this partnership in the Consolidated Revenue should cease — that the General Government should reduce taxation to the limits of its actual necessities, and that for their own purposes the Provinces must tax themselves or depend upon their land fund. This idea — the idea of dissolving the partnership alluded to — was embraced by the Acting Colonial Treasurer, the Hon. John Hall, and when moved a series of resolutions, the first of which (and upon which the others hung) was that the Provinces should no longer share in the Consolidated Revenue, but that it should be at the dieposal of the General Assembly — the Provinces, however, being relieved of jfche cost pf the Colonial departments, ctarges on their loans, and the maintenance of harbor establishments. For convenience sake, however, it was proposed that a capitation grant of 7s pithead should be allowel to each Province to cover the ot of maintaining police and gaols. But it whs evident; that the abolishment of the partnership would involve great ii justice to certain Provinces, especially those which had ' not borrowed largoty — Nelson, for instance, and to those which, like Westland, Auckland, Marlborough, Taranaki, and Hawkes Biy, had no large landed income. So the Colonial Treasurer proposed to do something to j equalise the effects pf his scheme by a' scale of payments in adjustment, which payments were to be made out of the accumulated Provincial Sinking Funds which, since the consolidation of the debts of the Colony, hid become Colonial property, and from an annual contribution of £12,000 from Southland. But Mr Hail in making his calculations had entirely shut out Westlaud in his adjustment proposals, undoubtedly unintentionally, but nevertheless he had done so, and his having done so entirely dislocated his whole scheme. This error was, a? Mr Harrison pointed out the other night, promptly brought under the Treasurer's notice, and the result was a meeting of the Ministerial supporter?, and the formation of a Committee to consider the question. Both the meeting and the Committee were outside the House altogether, and of a private character. Mr Harrison told the electors that l.c wss a member qf that Committee, and that he strongly protested all throughout against the frightful injustice that Westland would suffer if the financial proposals of the Government were carrjed- He further explained that after the Committee had debated the matter, the most that was available for Westland as compensation for losing her half share of the Consolidated Revenue was £15,QQ0 (afterwards raised to £20,000), and that it was a question with him whether he would take it or leave it. Bearing in mind £hat at this time both sides of thp House were agreed on the dissolution of the partnership between the Provinces and the General Government, it really was a question whether the representative pf Westland would accept the sutn o,r let the County go to the wall without any compensation whatever. Of course he was not so fooiish as to adopt the latter alternative, and he nqt so much "accepted" as did not refuse the amount offered. Ultimately, as \v« all know, the financial propositions of the Government broke through, and in his place in the Housu the member fin 1 Westlaud Boroughs

sufficiently vindicated the rights of the County and pointed out the injustice with which it had been threatened. Undoubtedly had the propositions of either the Colonial Treasurer or Mr Fox been carried Westland would have been ruined. But they were not, and Westland is not ruined, and yet has a bright fortune before it.