WELLINGTON.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 713, 13 August 1870, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(FB.OM OUH SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) Saturday, Aug. 6. In my last letter I mentioned the circumstances under which, by a sort of fluke, the Government had passed through Committee some new clauses in the Gold Duties Bill, giving power to Provincial and County Councils to reduce the duty on gold, but I did not fully explain the exact nature of these clauses. As they have siiice been thrown out by a majority on two separate divisions, and as I notice that a good deal of misconception has arisen in the country as to the exact nature of the proposals of the Government it will probably be useful if I give your readers a history of the matter. It is well known that the Thames gold is of inferior, quality to that produced from the alluvial gold fields, but up to the present time the same export duty of half-a-crown an ounce has been charged upon it. The Thames gold is largely alloyed with silver ; it is purchased in its alloyed state by the banks, who after refining it and extracting the silver export the latter free of duty. It has been stated that if the duty on the Thames gold were reduced so as to enable it to be exported in its alloyed state a better average price would be secured to the miners. Accordingly a Bill was brought in by the Government providing for a reduced scale of duty on gold oi varying degrees of inferiority ; this Bill was duly referred to the Gold Fields Committee, who after suggesting a few amendments of detail approved it and it was read a second time and ordered to be committed. But the day before going into Committee Mr Yogel gave notice tc introduce several new clauses, having foi their effect to give power to the Governci upon the recommendation of any Superintendent and Provincial Council, or ol the Chairman and County Council ol Westland, to reduce the ' export duty in respect of the gold exported from anj particular Province or Couuty. Before proceeding to mention the leading objections urged against these clauses, I maj tell you how they came to be proposed ai all. Mr Haughton has for several years agitated for the reduction cf the duty in Otago, both in the Provincial Council anc in the Assembly, but although he die lately obtajn a narrow majority in favoui of his proposal in the Otago Council, h« has never been able to accomplish his -uu»»v>B^iDJibi> J2o,u,sje. c chiefly because he or representation on the" part ~oT~th( miners themselves, and because it has been tolerably transparent that he was simply seeking political capital. Since the almost entire dispersion of the Opposition during the session, the two late whips of the Stafford party, Messrs Haughton and Btmny, true to theii instincts of the advantages to be gained by conciliating the winning side, have on several occasions rendered considerable service to the Government at critical periods of some of their measures, and it is no secret that Mr Yogel introduced the new clauses into the Gold Duties Bill entirely "to oblige Benson," i.e., C. E. Haughton. Mr Haughton'sJ anxiety to have at least the advantage of saying that ho had attempted to reduce the taxation on miners may be easily accounted for. His constituency (Hampden, iv Otago) is a tolerably extensive one, and his constituents are one-half miners aud the other half agriculturalists, so that he is placed in an awkward fix in voting on measures which, whilst benefiting one class, may be to the prejudice of the other. For instance, the proposed import duty on corn, flour, and other produce, is highly popular with the farmers, but exceedingly unpopular with the miners, so in order to conciliate both he must meet the objections of the miners to the higher duties on breadotnffs, Ac, by giving them compensation in another form. That is the whole secret of Mr Hau s hton's action, and of the attempt to smuggle entirely new clauses through a Bill brought in for entirely a different purpose.

The objections urged against the new clauses may be summed up as follows : — Ist. The impropriety and utterly unconstitutional character of the proposal to abrogate the first and ehiefest privilege of the Parliament of the Colony, viz., the dealing with the taxation of the country, to the Provincial Councils, or to the Governor. 2nd. That there was no evidence that the export duty pressed too heavily on the miners. 3rd. That it was absurd whilst both Provincial authorities and the Colony were asking for enormous sums of borrowed money, because their present revenues were not sufficient for public works, at the same time to cast away a valuable source of income against which no grave objection existed. These may be said to be the reasons which actuated the House in reconsidering and afterwards negativing the clauses. But j there are several others, which are scarcely less important. For instance, the tempta-, tion which such a measure would hold out to mining districts to deprive themselves of the main source of revenue from which their public works are made. The miners, as a class, do not accustom themselveu to look very deeply or far ahead into things. It is a natural result of their unsettled occupation and migratory character, that they take too often only a narrow view of matters, and act very largely on the "take care of to-day, the morrow will take care of itself" maxim— a maxim which is eminentlydelusive and dangerous. Mr Harrison referred to this objection in his remarks in Committee, and said that he had little doubt that if the Bill were passed as it stood, the next County Council of Westland would be led astray by it, and would reduce the gold duty, although even now its revenues were not sufficient to carry out the public works required, Other

speakers expressed similar opinions, and further pointed out that the Bill would give rise to an immense amount of fraud, and that although perhaps only one Province might reduce its duty, all the rest would have to do the same in self-defence. For instance, suppose Canterbury were to reduce its export duty to Is an ounce, whilst Westland maintained the present rate of 2s 6d, it would pay the banks well to send their gold overland, and export it from Lyttelton, and Westland would only receive the reduced sum. Again, it was shown how inconsistent it was that whilst it was proposed to spend L 300,000 specially for the benefit of the Gold Fields out of borrowed money, it was at the same time proposed to reduce the revenue of the Gold Fields themselves. Another view taken by Mr Harrison was, that the miners did riot so much complain of the taxes they paid as of the manner in which they were spent; and he said that there would be no grumbling if the diggers got a fair share of the revenue in the shape of roads and other public works. When the Bill, after passing through Committee, was reported to the House on the following day, and the question was "that the Bill do pass," Mr Kynnersley moved as an amendment,, that it be recommitted. He made an excellent speech, short and to the point, and stated that his objections to it were — that he would never consent to increase the power of Provincial Councils and Superintendents ; that the reduction of duty was not really needed ; and that the new clauses had been improperly introduced into a Bill that purported only to reduce the duty on inferior gold in the Province of Auckland. He was followed by Mr Stafford, who protested in the most decisive manner against the delegation of the functions of Parliament to any body, and characterised the new clauses as being merely electioneering clap-traps, and said that if they were carried they would prove most injurious to the interests of the Gold Fields. A long debate took place, in which, of course, Mr Haughton adopted a tone of great virtue— declaimed loudly upon the "grinding taxation of the miners," and uttered several other phrases of like character, which no doubt were intended to have their due weight upon the constituency of Hampden. On a division, the Bill, which had passed through Committee the previous night by a majority of three, was re-committed by a majority of like number. The Houae then adjourned for the usual dinner-hour; and on resuming, Mr Yogel said the Government would be willing, to compromise the matter by withdrawing the proposals with regard to the reduction of the duty by Provincial Councils, and giving those bodies power to reduce the miners' rights to 10s. But it was no use ; the House was now awake to the unconstitutional character of the principle proposed by the Government, and after another long debate, in which every speaker spoke his previous speeches over again, the new clauses as originally proposed and the compromise were successively thrown out by majorities of five and seven respectively. Mr Haughton, in order to vent his disappointment, published in the Advertiser (of which he is at present Editor), next morning, a violent attack upon Mr Kynnersley, Mr Swan, and other Gold Fields members, and published the division list, heading it over the columns, " Against reduction of gold duty," "For reduction of gold duty." putting it — the question never was wlteifier the gold duty should be reduced or iwt, but whether the power of remitting taxatiou authorised by Parliament shonld be given to Provincial Councils. That was the real issue. During the debate Mr Yogel received a very neat and effective snubbing from Mr Kynnersley which is worth repeating. In commenting on Mr Kynnersley's remarks Mr Yogel said that " the member for Westland North was one of the most inconsistent young gentlemen he had met with." The words were said somewhat offensively and in a patronising tone, and Mr Kynnersley got up and said he " was not going to bandy personalities with the Colonial Treasurer, he (Mr Kynnersley) confessed to being young,, and confessed to being a gentleman" — a retort courteous, and yet cutting, which took iinir versally with the House, and made Mr Yogel apologise. There have been two or three -fights on the representation readjustment proposals. As you are aware the Government did not propose to make any alteration in the relative number of members between the various provinces, but simply that whilst the number for each province should remain as it is, there should be a redistribution within the provinces themselves. Their proposals were loudly reaented by the Opposition and other members. Mr Stafford characterised the resolution of the Government as another instance of the utter indifference of the Ministry to their duties. Mr Gillies endeavored to carry an amendment to the effect that population should be taken as the basis of the number of members to be returned by each Province, but when it was seen that the result would be to give J Ofcago and Auckland two thirds of the representation of the whole Colony, the House took alarm and Mr Gillies was defeated by a large majority. All the West Coast members protested strongly against the inadequate representation of their districts, and it was generally conceded by the House that Westland was entitled to additional representation. But how was it" to be done ? If the present number of members of the House was not to be increased some must'be taken from those provinces that appeared to have too many. Taranaki was suggested as perfectly able to spare one, but poor Carrington told such a "pitiful tale" that eventually the Government said that they would not consent to deprive any district of the representation which it enjoyed, and proposed that the question should be postponed until the following day, when they would suggest some other plan. Accordingly next day the Government stated that they proposed to add two members to the House, giving one to Auckland, and one to Westland, including Westland North. After some debate this arrangement waa agreed to, and the schedule in its amended form referred to the Special Committee appointed to re-arrange the boundaries of the electoral districts. The Committee have since been busily engaged at their work, and tremendous wraugling work it is. I believe that the four members for the West Coast will be divided somehow as follows : — From North of Coast to Razorback, one member ; Razorback to Teremakau, including town of Greymouth, one ditto :

Teremakau to Hokitika, including town of Hokitika, one member ; Hokitika to Southern boundary, 1 ditto. It i 3 pos-' sible some modification may be made in this arrangement, but mainly I think it will be the one adopted. The Payment of Provinces Bill has been read a second time. During its progress Messrs Harrison and Barff again raised their voices to the injustice of its operation upon Westland, and the Colonial Treasurer was compelled to admit that it did press heavily upon the County, but he confessed his inability to make any alteration. I have learnt, however, that since then the . urgent representations of Mr Harrison and the Hon. John Hall have induced the Colonial Treasurer to put down L3OOO more when the Bill comes into Committee. Mr Haughton's manhood suffrage resolutions have been shelved by the previous question. It was found that if carried as they stood there would have been a great difficulty, with regard to the Natives, and it was not considered desirable to give all the Maoris the right to vote at European elections. The advanced period of the session, too, did not leave it probable that so important a measure would get through. ■ . The Government do, however, intend, I believe, to bring in a bill conferring the franchise on lodgers. The Estimates are half-way ; through. On the item L4OO for Receiver of Revenue at Hokitika, Mr Harrison insisted on its being struck out as an entirely unnecessary expenditure. He showed that the office of receiver could well be combined with some other of the over-loaded departments of the General Government at Hokitika, and succeeded in convincing the Committee so well, that although the Colonial^Treasurer rather testily expressed his determination not to allow the item to be struck off, he was forced to Withdraw it, on the promise that he would make enquiry if the arrangement proposed by Mr Harrison could be carried out. During his remarks, he said, or rather hinted, that the objection to the item was simply • because the post had not been given to some local person, an inuendo which Mr Harrison properly resented as a gratuitous misrepresentation and impertinence. Mr Harrison also strove hard to reduce the Customs Department at Hokitika byLSOO, but without doing more than getting L 225 struck off. He pointed out the absurdity of employing a staff costing a thousand pounds more at Hokitika for doing no more work than was done at Greymouth. The Colonial Treasurer promised that, as soon as practicable, one or two more officers should be removed. The Annexation Petition from your district is referred to a Select Committee.. It is generally understood now that both the Government and the Kelson members are favorable to it, and possibly a Bill to give it effect will be introduced in a few days,