ENGLAND TAXED FOR HER COLONIES.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 95, 26 October 1868, Page 260

ENGLAND TAXED FOR HER COLONIES.

-THEvexedquestionoftaxationisyery: often /placed., befdre.us in 'S'& familiar, sud.|enl;)oim&oni a; row of figures m^,,pQsi:tioii:--.;shat,yir.e. always:''thought should be reversed. Nor is it figures alone that are madeto ' play fantastib tricks/but facts are used by the partisans ofvarious “schools ss to represent “I?s”videa's,in; as’ many;: different guises as there are sects offpoliticians.'. Not content with, troubling our peace at: home, a small knot of would-be reformers have: lately turned their attention, to “Taxation and Expenditure,’’ and having formed themselves into the “ Financial Reform Union,” are issuing a series of papers with the object of-procuring the easement of our fiscal burdens." ,We ; : rejoice .that, there. are persona who will endeavour to stem the increasing tide of taxation, but we ilo trust that they will be able to ad; vance stronger , and less fallacious arguments than they-have done in paper No. 4, purporting to treat of “ Colonial Expenditure, Tariffs, and Trade.” In this paper we are told that the English people groan under a burden of <£3,388,023, paid for the support of 50.000 British soldiers who undertake to protect the Colonies, while the Englishmen who stay at home receive no benefit for this tremendous outlay. A.fter detailing the supposed grievances of the British taxpayer under this head, we are told that “ unless it can be shown that this country derives aD adequate return for the money spent upon the. Colonies, its continuance is alike wasteful, unnecessary, and unjust.” With this we quite agree, and we shall maintain that the Colonies are an excellent first-class investment for British money even as our Reformers desire. Truly the Colonies do not hand over to the Imperial Government a sum of .£4,000,000 wherewith to pay the said .£3,388,023, but still they take from the Imperial Government’s immediate subjects an immense amount of goods, in the manufacture of which many hundred thousand hands are employed; they keep employed the largest mercantile marine in the world for the conveyance of the goods, and for the return of solid gold and raw material to the mother country. Upon transactions amounting to £42,307,756 with six of our oolonies, it is only fair to assume that the profit is considerable understated at £5,000,000. But we are assured by our friends that the total exports to all the colonies were in 1866 only £33,745,389, whereas we find by the trade returns of only six tf our colonies the imports to them alone were £42,307,756. If. all the figures quoted in this pamphlet are . alike veracious, it is not necessary to add an other word. Ouly we cannot let the most unguarded, assertion of all to be passed over in silence—it is that our colonies do not provide an outlet for our surplus population. No one who really knows the Colonies-and understands emigration would have ventured upon such a statement. The Colonies are open as outlets' to the surplus population, and it is only the short-sightedness (to say the least) of Englishmen at home that prevents such outlets becoming properly used. The very fact, as admitted by the compiler of this pamphlet, “that an emigrant who lands in one of our colonial possessions l finds a speedy road to independence and even wealth,” proves that it is certain he becomes a greater consumer of England’s manufactures than he could possibly have been had he remained at home. This is perhaps the best answer to these Solons. . ■

We congratulate the; colonists, and those of New Zealand particularly, that “ their enemies" have written a book,” for they will hear with sur-, prise that they neVer raised men or money in their own defence-hence their “ war debt,” with which they imagine themselves burdened, must be .some horrid nightmare, from which this book -of wisdom and; “.wideawakeness ” ought to immediately relieve them. ■* •- •• -AvY;'-

We must not ! „be : ; understood to he inimical; to the efforts oft he; “Financial but..we mhst oue‘-sitl.edlyA^ andAJdiscussirigH-the. > smaßs.c%YQ^^

and the de4racbioa ;r of ' property valued at ?■ YSHEEA^%GHIHAiSkOE. r --01l 28tK could be turned out committed’ a good deal of damage; "‘v ('YYYA? Y" : Ghost-seeeebs.—A London paper tof ib’eßtk August ’ saysDurihglasrweek.b ci’pwd'pf kpki a thousand to. two thousand persons assembled nigbtly outside'-Ber'-mondsey' cburcKyard, looking for a .'spectirb said to: haunt ; the place, ever since a body which had been found in the was deposited in the' dead-house there. ; The clergyman, the parochial officers, and the police seem to exert themselves in vain to disperse the- crowd, • which grows” larger every night. ..

A Beab Stout.—The Ludingtoh. ' (Michagan) . Record of the 30th June contains the following :—Mr Heniy Flynn, who lives about forty miles east of this plaice, started one morning to take, a horse to pasture about, .two miles distance from the house, and; as his little - girl skeined ' very anxious to.go, he put her upon tlie. horse’s back and let her ride a short distance, per haps forty rods from the house, where be put her down and told her to run home.' He noticed that the child was standing where he left her, and, on looking back after going a little further, saw her playing in the: sand. He soon passed out of sight, and was gone about an hour, expecting, of course, that the child would return to the: house after playing a few moments. On. returning home he madeiuquiry about the child of its mother, who said that she had not seen the child, and supposed he had taken her along with him. On going;to the spot where he- had left her. he saw huge bear tracks in the sand, and atb”ce came to the conclusion that the child had been carried off by the bear. The family immediately made search through the forest, which was grown up to almost a jungle, rendering their search very slow. All day these anxious parents searched for some trace of their child, nor did they stop when darkness came on, but remained in the woods calling the child by her name. Morning came, and their search was fruit less. A couple of gentlemen looking at land came to the house, and beiug informed of the circumstances, immediatelyset out to help to find the child. The gentlemen wandered about, and as they were passing a swampy spot where the undergrowth was thick, they either called the child, or elso were talking loud, when one of them heard the child’s Voice. He then called the child by name,' and told her to come out of the bushes. She replied that the bear would not let her. The men then crept through the bush, and when near tlie spot where the child and bear were, they heard' a splash in the water, whicli th;; child said was the bear. On going to‘ her they found her standing upon a log.extend ing about half way across the river. The bear had undertaken to cross the river on the log, and being closely pursued left the child and swam away. She had received some scratches about her face, arms, and legs, and her clothes were a’most torn from her body ; but the hear ha l not. bitten her to hurt her, only the marks of his teeth being found on her back, where, in taking hold of her clothes to' carry her, he had taken the flesh also. The little one says the bear would put her down occasionally to res 1 ', and would put hri nose up to her face; then she would slap hhu, and then the bear would hang his head by her side and purr and rub against her like a ett fhe men asked her if she was cold in the night, and she told them that the old bear lay down beside her and put liis “ arms ” around her and kept, her warm, though she •lid not like his long hair.

Ptoishmext oe a Jokeb—The following story recently appeared in- the Moni teur A lugubrious practical joke, was lately played at a hamlet called .Yseron in a mountainous district nbar Lyons/' ,ln this li.imict there lived a harmless idiot, of herculean stature, who habitually did la good day’s work in the fields, but was u standing butt for village pleasantry, arid was commonly called the “Innocent.”' One day some young men told the “ Innocent” that a neighbour was dead, and that he would have to join with others in sitting up all night to watch the corpse He made no objection, and was introduced into a cottage where a man simulating death was stretched on a bed. The outline' of his face, seen through a sheet, thrown over it, formed a ghastly spectacle.' Tvrolcandles and some pots of incehse.yye.re placed at the head of tlie bed. The party sat round for some time in solemn silence, the idiot beliaviug with as much propriety as any one .else. 13ut one. by one the others slipped away, and the “lunocent” was left alone in the death chamber. The intention" was that the corpse should jump up, walk about; and frighten, him-out ot liis poor.stock of;wits. The conspirators remained a.-few yards of;thb. cottage, to watch the working of tlie; plot. In less than a quarter of . an hour,they lieai*d tie icing.screams, and-, holding tijeii* sides already with- an ticipatedlaughter, they rushed to the- cottageVto; inock .. at “their victim. But’,as they neac^dfthbVdbor I.they 1 .they found, ;to,''theii; surprise,'{tiiafijtlie. howliiigvoice was not that of the;;*^Slhnobent,” but of'. tlieiiv comrade. , the#'/found 'the; “.Inhoi&At” .beafcirig J the ‘ corpse ’’. with a: broken ;flail, : and>::but for dertiUclyr hiscgrave-clothes, ;the i instead of joeing YfrightenedY;si^idY^bUy»!‘.‘rßuad himi.'m&.a^^qr'ce.fwhipbrthe-jqkerY'ires^tit-

; by. There were 68; lots put-up for sMe, sbbeie: of which were vataabletvYThe prices were : very low, the Bale altogetherirealising ahout:£2o. f-v, ;•; ‘Arn V > c® stance , of, sagacity and . gentlenesß-iwas day." : Shbrtly'aft'erithe prdcesßiqriftpTFgicd Greeh > thef’-top’bf> St; JohiS’s’ ]sqnai» along,; whena young- 'chtrd^ahdOTed’'£rß& ’.it. Ji , .. .. v . 4..-V .ifits mother and got under* thediorse’s feet/ iThie, driver; instantly animal, with remarkable' 'in the most marked manner, avoided treading on the.-child,; and the result. was' that the little oreafurp escaped without; injury. A" correspondent who was on the spot at the time, Bavs :—“ The , horse- put-. its foot gently on the child,.twice on the head and twice on the arm, and in each instance took its foot .off as soon ; as it felt the, chile? under it. The horse held up its feet for fear of treading on the child, and only put its forefeet on the ground. when/ the infant was taken from under it. A large number of bystanders witnessed the sagacity of the horse, and were loud in their remarks,*that ‘ the horse knew all about it as well as a Christian.’ The admiration of the persons assembled was general and enthusiastic, as it was expected so tender a ohild, of two years, must be mortally injured, instead of which there was not a scratch upon it. The • mother, Mrs Corns, witnessed the occurrence, but it was some time after she had seen her child that she could believe it was alive.