HONESTY AND CONSISTENCY.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 188, 7 August 1869, Page 4

HONESTY AND CONSISTENCY.

To the. Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —The great cry and excuse Mr. Sinclair made against paying his rates to the late Board of Works were because the Board appointed two of their own number Assessors, instead of appointing paid persons to do it. At the last meeting of the Borough Council Mr. Sinclair stood up and advocated the reduction of his own rates, and voted for such reduction, —just doing ten times worse than the old Board were ever guilty of. After tho strong language used agaiust the defunct Board, this does appear to me to be the height of inconsistency. The Board did it for the most laudable object of saving the ratepayer’s money, (which, by the way, is a great mistake), not to get their own rates reduced at the expense of the other ratepayers, neither did they do it to evade paying their share towards making the roads.

My attention has been called to a letter in the News of Saturday last, signed “James Sinclair,” in which the writer advocates taxing dogs in preference to property ; I should think he did, as he is the largest holder of property, and one of the smallest owners of dogs. To put it quite plain, I assume Mr. S.’s rates to be £2O ; by levying a 3d. rate instead of Is. he would save £ls by the transaction, less dog tax 10s., that is if he keeps one. This is backing up us poor men in earnest, by taxing us all alike, rich aud poor, property or no property ; making a poor man with a two-room cottage pay as much towards making the roads as a rich man with a large house and 300 sections of land. Save us from our friends, I say.—l am, &c,, Supplement to Justice. y/ “ANNEXATION, FORSOOTH!” To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —Through the length and breadth of the Province a howl of indignation has echoed from valley to valley ; never has the public mind been so much of one accord as in the unanimous denunciation of the atrocious proposition of the Colonial Treasurer—to re-annex this Province to Nelson : the sheep once rescued from the bloody fangs of the wolf, to be again returned to his merciless clutches ; the fly escaped from the spider, to be again entangled in the meshes of the bloodsucker. The Colonial Treasurer must have satisfied himself that the full width of the Straits lay between himself and those he would outrage ere he made such a proposition. Before the people of this Province would submit to be given away like a pair of old breeches, there would be a little revolution, and the Government must be prepared to increase the Constabulary to put it down. Have the present Ministry lived so long in New Zealand, and yet do not know that the Maungatapu separates political feelings as widely divergent as do the Alps or the Pyrinees ? The injustice and rapacity of Nelson lies like an ocean barrier between the Provinces—wide and deep as the broad Atlantic. Has Marlborough forgotten that Nelson sold land in this Province to the value of <£125,000, and only returned £7,500 in public works executed in making the joint road to the Wairau; and that at the time of Separation, Nelson managed to foist upon us the £7,500 as a debt under the Debenture Act. This was the unkindest cut of all. Verily, we have little cause to love Nelson.

Marlborough must speak out decidedly, and let the Government know that the people of this Province will not submit to any re-annexation ; that they read the future by the past; that no one is so silly as to suppose that one penny would ever lie contributed by Nelson to the requirements of this place ; that we should merely have to rate ourselves for our roads, as we must do in any case ; that Nelson would take our Land Fund to pay gaols, police, and other necessities ; she would make us self-supporting is certain ; and what is more, would look beyond all that for a contribution towards her machinery of Government. Of all possible futures for Marlborough, re-an-nexation to Nelson would be the most calamitous. We may in some measure blame ourselves for the proposed degradation—we asked for relief, and the parish officers propose to let us out to a neighboring employer. A County here will not answer under the present financial arrangements, and with a Government adverse to the system, it is not possible. It then only remains to be seen what can be done by steady self-reliance. First, let us call upon the General Government to give us our rights—our share of Customs according to population. If they again refuse to give us justice, let us try a compromise : that as they take all our Customs, they should in return pay the interest on our debts, and pay all General Government charges in the Province, so that we could not again be brought into debt. If this arrangement could not be effected, let us, as a last resource call upon them to reduce their expenditure within their income ; more than one half of the General Government officers here could be dispensed with by a judicious combination of offices, with a similar arrangement in the Provincial service. With a compulsory Road Act, and a suitable Education Act, the Provincial Government could be carried on for about one half of the present cost, especially if amalgamations of offices could be effected between the two services. Out of the Provincial Revenue of about £6,000 per annum, a half or a third might be made available for public works. Let this subject be borne in mind by the public, and let them, by a speedy meeting of the Province, express .their views upon the crisis. I am, &c. Brutus.