Public Opinion.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1571, 28 April 1874, Page 200

Public Opinion.

,;:■• LAND LAWS IN OTAGO. :' J New Zealand Herald. Otago, which only very lately was jubilant a 9 to the successful working of its Laud Act, is now telling altogether another tale. The Otago Daily Times laments the present state of affairs, and informs its readers that the province is committed to a policy which requires an enormously increased settled population, and that utter ruin will be the inevitable consequence if there be any hesitation or delay in the equitable adjustment as to the disposal of the land., "If," says our contemporary, " leaders and lawmakers imagine that things may be allowed to drift on in a happy-go-lucky/way, and that prosperity will always smile as now upon the country, without their further help, they will finrl themselves vastly mistaken. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the gravity of the situation, and we trust our present rulers are alive to the fact. Unless they are prepared to grant greater facilities for placing people upon the land, they, will most certainly find that they have reckoned without their host, and that their popularity will soon end in a downfall, as certain as it will be justly deserved." Here is a sudden revulsion of feeling with a vengeance. Utter ruin is to .be the inevitable consequence if the present Land Act is to be allowed to continue in force. And yet this is the same journal which has lauded the Otago regulations for the disposal of ' provincial lands, so that no man dare say it nay. Having alienated its best lands under a pressure long since insisted on by the leading journal of Otago, it now turns round and tells its readers that the province is being ruined. Verily we have a second Daniel come to judgment. The Guardian, although deprecating the strain of writing pursued by the Times, goes on to say :—" We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that settlement in Otago is not at all keeping pace with the absolute requirements of the population. We have been told of a case of one settler, of 12 years' standing, who, having reared a large family creditably, and accumulated money, is anxious to invest from £5,000 to £6,000 in the purchase of land on which to fix his sons; but the block which he would select from is not available. We have likewise heard of some 25 persons, on their way to Otago from North America, each one of whom fetches a considerable sura of money, and is experienced in the rough work of colonization ; but the gentleman who induced them to come cannot obtain a block of suitable land on which to locate them together, as they desire, so that they may mutually help each other." ANTI-THISTLE LEGISLATION. New Zealand Hebald. The Taranaki Provincial Council has done or attempted to do some foolish things in the way of legislation, but it is making amends by repealing a few useless Acts, one of which is law in most of the provinces, but which it has been found impossible to enforce. This is the Thistle Ordinance, which in its operation attempts to compel man to answer for the sins of bis fellow man. It taxes the farmer and the landholder for having the seed of which has been wafted from another man's land or from a Government reserve, or from waste and unsold sections of a district. Thistles are not the unmitigated evil which has been spoken of them. It is indeed coming to be considered whether some blessings do not attend their growth and increase. Victoria has abolished its Thistle Ordinances long since, upon the fact having been ascertained that after spreading over certain areas they flourish for a time and die out, leaving the land very much improved. Thistles have been proved to be rich in potash—a great fertilizer of the soil. Our Taranaki contemporary, the Herald, writes on the subject in the following terms: —" Although the thistles are, for the time being, a noxious weed when they occupy grounds which ought to be in grass or crop, yet they are not without their good qualities. Being deep rooted they improve and cultivate the subsoil. They abstract from the subsoil those active mineral properties which are necessary for the production of good crops, and bring them to the surface. If a crop of thistles were ploughed in green, it would be about the cheapest and best manure the farmer could apply to his land. The thistle procures the supply from a lower depth and if ploughed in green, effects the same operation, but not at the cost of the surface soil. This accounts for the excellent crops of potatoes and grass which are found to succeed thistles; even the Maoris know that after a heavy crop of thistles potatoes are sure to do well." And so in Tarauaki the Act has been repealed, 'while in the other provinces it has been allowed to become a dead letter, which nearly amounts to the same thing. CORONERS' JURIES. Southern Cross. It has for a long time been a matter of consideration whether coroners were of any real value in detecting and preventing crime, and whether the verdicts given by the jurors are, as a general rule, worthy of the slightest weight. But it must be conisdered that these jurors are, for the most part, picked up in the locality of the inquest, and too frequently are men of no general knowledge, and hardly able to make the cross attesting their presence as judges of right and wrong. Something is radically wrong in the present system of selecting them, although, perhaps, much may be said in favor of the authorities on account of the difficulty in obtaining eligible men. Persons of credit and experience run away and hide themselves directly they see the coroner's constable approach the locality. And this is not to be wondered at consider ing that their time must be given up for an unlimited period 1 without fee or emolument This .state of things is unsatisfactory, aud should be amended. Three jears ago a Circumstance occurred in connection with a coroner's jury in thi3 enlightened city, when only four jurors could be "caught by the police, who,

finding the number short, resorted to the expedient of "collaring" eight out of a road party of common uneducated laborers' wlio were working in the vicinity, and who were compelled to give up three-quarters of their day's pay for the pleasure of inspecting a dead body and delivering their opinion as to the cause of death, respecting which they knew about as much when all was over as they did when the proceedings commenced. They got nothing, as a matter of course, for their labor, and, poor men, lost the major portion of their day's pay. All this is utterly wrong. A great amendment might be effected by paying jurors a moderate sum per hour. By this arrangement a better class ot men would be obtained than often are unwillingly forced into the service of their country. TAXATION. Wellington Independent. The fate of the income tax in England has necessarily an interest for us in New Zealand, as we certainly shall at some period be put face to face with the question of direct or indirect taxation. There is no denying the equity of the former, and also, it is impossible to gainsay the fact that people will pay indirect taxation with less grumbling than they will pay direct. Nothing cau be fairer than a combined property and income-tax in which property is taxed on the one scale, the income derived fron. it on another, and other incomes on a scale proportionate to their amount. And there is to be said in favor of such a plan that the electors would take a much keener interest in the disposition of the public finances if the tax-collector came round quarterly with the receipt book in his hand. But after all this is a matter for the tax-payers to decide. If they prefer to contribute to the expenses of Government every time they discharge the bills of their grocers or spirit merchants, they have surely a right to do so. Only, it is well that every now and then the case should be fairly and distinctly stated to them.