Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1891. What May be Expected.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 31 January 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1891. What May be Expected.

«. A member of the House is prepared to move " That the maintenance of hospitals and charitable institutions should be provided for by special taxation derived from wealth, and not, as at present, principally from the people, through local taxation and the Consolidate Fund." A quiet consideration of this proposal shows, that such a step would be further pauperization of the labouring class. It does not seem to be sufficient to please that at present a man is at liberty to recklessly misuse his earnings in folly and vice, and then throw his restoration to health on the steady and frugal, The decent working man is to be demoralised, to be brought to the level of the loafer and drunkard, and to ba forbidden, by these advocates of labjur, to contribute one half? penny for the support of such neces-

sary institutions as hospitals. In the old countries of the World, hospitals and Ahnshouses, are viewed as charities, to an extent, but the co-operation of all classes is sought. Surely in this Colony there should be few who desire to be relieved from paying a share for such purposes. The "making, even, 'of such a proposal, serves, like a straw, to show what peculiar ideas are abroad.