The Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY. MONDAY, 24th SEPTEMBER, 1866.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 423, 24 September 1866, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY.

MONDAY, 24th SEPTEMBER, 1866.

‘'HULLIHS ADDICTCS JtTBAT.B lx VEBBA MAGISTBI.”

Possibly the steamer now expected from Wellington with the English mails may bring us the news of the prorogation of the General Assembly, and for several months to come we shall be spared the anxiety attendant on the progress of colonial legislation. Since we last directed attention to this subject, much has been done by the new Ministry, as the brief notices for which we found room in our last testify. The stamp duty question has passed from the sphere of discussion to that of fact. It has been made a reality after a prolonged debate extending over no less than seven days, which was taken part in by all, or nearly all, the talent of the House. It was ultimately confirmed by the considerable majority of twenty ; and will, unpleasant as it may be, have to be borne by the Colony. There was some indication of an intention to reduce the customs duties on sundry articles of general consumption which now press heavily upon tho people, and if this he done, we are constrained to admit that it will be a change for the better; but it appears that Ibis is contingent upon the resignation of some portions of the subsidies heretofore awarded to the Provincial Governments under the Surplus Revenue Act, and popularly known as the three-eighths. These subsidies are also placed upon a new basis, and for the future they will will be placed upon the estimates of the Government expenditure, and expressly appropriated for provincial use. The sum so placed aud appropriated for the current financial year, ending 30th June, 1867, is £218,7C0, which is three-eighths of the estimated customs revenue ; hut, exclusive of the stamp duties and revenue estimated from other sources to the amount of £200,000. Nothing was said in the financial statement of the threatened tax upon newspapers, and we have good reason to believe that the new Ministry does not intend to impose it. We gather this especially from a difference we find in the estimates from those of Mr Jollie. The latter gentleman estimated the additional revenue to be derived from the proposed alterations in the postage of letters, aud the imposition of a postal tax on newspapers at £14,000; hat the sum set down in the estimates of Mr Fitzherhert as accruing from additional postal revenue is hut £7,000, and as he has himself given us the satisfactory information that the hitherto existing disproportion between the revenue and expenditure of this department is gradually diminishing, there is good reason to believe that the estimate of £7OOO increase does not include the item of a newspaper postal tax. Another important debate was in progress when the last mail left Wellington for this port. It was on the question of the Poverty J Bay petition for dismemberment from Auck- | land and annexation to this province,—the

principal feate of which was a pledge offered by his buor Mr Donald M'Lean to expend no les a sum than £40,000 of our provincial fuij in compensating friendly natives, purcbing lands for them and settlement of loes sustained; beside other <£lo,ooo in jyment of the share of the <£3,000,000 in allotted to that district. We shall makno remarks pending the termination of tj debate, but commend the subject to tluearnest consideration of our readers througout the Province.