Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1890. To-morrow Night.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 2 December 1890, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1890. To-morrow Night.

On Wednesday evening Mr Pirani has announced his intention to hold a meeting at the Public Hall in this town to expose the " fallacies" he asserts that our criticisms of him contain. We welcome his proposal. It will not be out of the way if we suggest that it has taken him much time to discover these alleged " fallacies," as the articles in which they are supposed to lie, were published on the 14th and 16th of October. He has taken fifty days before attempting any reply ! If the electors would only take Mr Pirani's opinions of himself and the other candidates, he would no doubt be returned by a large majority, but though he made a laboured criticism of a very personal nature of Mr Wilson's circular, and has issued a distorted attack on Mr Stevens' past Parliamentary career, yet we feel sure the electors

will judge of the candidates for themselves, and will thug differ widely from Mr Pirani. The action of the political party to which he is attached, as shown by Mr Ballance's vulgar abuse of Mr Wilson ; his own action in his personalities about Mr Wilson on the public platform, and the underhand attack by circular on Mr Stevens ; and his supporters action in printing and circulating the coffin placard, probably conceived by the deaths resulting from the rioting caused by the Knights of Labour elsewhere, must necessarily have let the respectable portion of the community into a very fair knowledge of what they might expect from him if returned to Parliament. Mr Pirani may say that he is innocent of the above, but if so his plain duty was to have, directly the facts appeared in the papers, given them denial. In our opinion these acts were not necessary to secure his non -election, and we should have been better pleased had they been avoided and thus saved the lowering of the tone of political contests in this district. To avoid any misunderstanding we again ask Mr Pirani in what public document did he find the statement that the unimproved value of land, held by private owners, amounted to 75 millions ? Where is it shown, in a reliable document, that 1615 people own 18 million of acres, when the Crown Lands Department record only the sale of 13 million acres from the foundation of the colony up to the 31st of March ! How does Mr Pirani arrive at his calculation that by taking off the Customs duties on the necessaries of life, the farmers will save from £10 to £14 per head, when there are only 600,000 people, equalling 120,000 families of five in each, and the whole of the Customs revenue only amounts to about £1,440,000 ?' As lie cannot make his tax of one per cent on the value of unimproved lands equal the Pro-perty-tax, what income tax does he calculate will be needed "? and does he know what sum the very highest income tax ever levied in England amounted to '? As he has suggested a tax on the totalisator, what is the amount he suggests as a tax, and to what should it be used ? We should also still like to know whether he adheres to his own political platform, or whether he is prepared to adopt the platform of more experienced politicians ? An explanation of the great difference he asserts to exist, in the value of unimproved land, and the unimproved value of land, would prove interesting. We are aware that for some period Mr Pirani was Chairman of the Palmer;:ton Licensing Bench. We notice that at Foxton he expressed his desire to see the Licensing Committees abolished. We should like to know upon what grounds he has comedo this decision.