THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1874.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 292, 3 October 1874, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1874.

The total amount of revenue, raised by special taxation, the Province of Otago derived from her Goldfields during 1873 was £37,054 18s. The expenditure for the year ending 31st March, 1874, for Goldfields maintenance—including £3OO, the half of the salary drawn by the Secretary for Works and Goldfields; £i.ll 19s. 3d., the cost of a quartz crushing machine in Dunedin; a court house at Clyde, and a gaol at Lawrence—was only £8,868 45.:2 d. The latter two items would no xloubt be charged against the General Government sooner or later, so we ought not to have included them. As a prime result we find that a quarter of the taxation is returned, and three-fourths are expended in other ways and in places outside Goldfields." Taking the year's revenue, as returned' by the Provincial Government to the 31st March—which is a little less than for the- year ending 31st December, 1873 amounting to £34,86(5 Oj. 3d. —we find-' that the'' 7,222. miners in Otago at tEat: date were being taxed to the tune of £4 16s. 6d. per head, to receive back again, in maintenance of j order and public offices, £1 4s. 6d. per ' head. . We spoke last week of a poll tax of £1 per head ; it will.be seen the I reality is nearer £5, Supposing we j were, to Calculate up the small items expended on roads on Goldfields, the result would, not be very different; but it would be most unfair to do so.. We will briefly endeavor to point out why: Our-Goldfields are situated in districts which have hitherto been looked upon as almost altogether pastoral. Now, the expenditure on roads, it is a recognised principle, should be a charge against the occupiers of the lands.through which such roads run—a charge upon acres rather than upon ' people. This principle is recognised in all agricultural districts, under the present system of lioad Board Management. Now, the largest item of Provincial Revenue in last year's receipts is £44,933 14s. 3d. accruing from assessments on stock in these same Goldfields—for Southland assessments are returned separately. To this must be added £8,223 rent of runs, under the head of educational purposes, also in Goldfields. These valuable interior lands belong to the Province, the Provincial Government, on behalf of the whole people of the ' Province, being the landlord. The pastoral tenants who find this revenue have only an equal right to consideration as a proportion of the people in the Province, not as proprietors in their own right. In justice to the estate held in charge, to be dealt with by Government in the best manner for the people, this very inadequate income of £53, : 156 14s. 3d. ought to have been expended on rdads and public works in-the districts in which it was collected. The whole expenditure on the roads of the Province, from the Bluff to the Waitaki was only £66,094, or, with bridges, £77,418. Out of this, £7,531 was spent on the road between Dunedin and Oamaru; £6,177 on main road between Dunedin and Tokomairiro; £8,961 on roads in purely agricultural districts; eliminating from calculation all small votes of £IOO or under —leaving £43,425 as having been presumedly spent in the district from which, as land rent—for increased assessment on stock was Bimply a rise in rent —over £53,000 was collected. The injustice does not end here, for we find, among the items of expenditure, £19,084 as subsidies to Koad Boards in agricultural districts, as against the munificent sum of £407 similar subsidies to roads on -Goldfields. - - If .these Crow-a- interior lands so badly cared, for private hands, and were returning ihe same. revenue as special taxation, then would.ma'ttern be quickly set right j,,but;-because the estate is the peoples—?not -.only !in theory but in practice,':f»pits bad man-'j Sgement obviously ijici'ea&ea their tax-

ation —therefore the abuse is unheeded. The revenue is cast into the Provincial melting pot, along with the £37,050 collected from the miners, to be given out to the agriculturists in the coast districts—that is, all that the Dunedin harpies find it impossible to retain. The injustice of this is very plain, but, curiously enough, the impolicy is not so clear, or able administrators such as Mr. Macandrew would not permit it without protest; We briefly will show one. result ; others equally striking could be adduced in profusion :—Some writers are endeavoring to find a cause why alluvial mining is decreasing in its results. A few politicians also have exhibited traces of alarm at the reduction of last year's Goldfields. revenue, and also search, or pretend to search, for causes. Now we assert, without fear of contradiction, that the only cause of such decrease, of . revenue is the decrease of the mining population; that, again, being caused by a suicidal taxation of nearly £5 per head per man. Last :year alone the* number of miners' rights issued in Otago decreased from 6,377 to 4,911. A s all miners do not take out rights * punctually, we may pretty safely allow all such to represent the quota who, desisting from mining, have turned to other pursuits and not left the country, taking the balance of 1.466 as having left for other Colonies, for the most part taking money with them, and all their experience, perhaps better than, money. To take their place the Government is introducing immigrants of mixed classes—over 6,000 adults, male, and female, having arrived within ther year—the whole lot entirely unadapted to help to develop the mineral resources of New Zealand. To, however, replace these 1,466 miners with, politically speaking, this very, poor substitute is costing from first to last at least £ls per head, or £16,126. To put the fact barely, the decrease in mining population in 1873 is costing the country directly— not regarding the : indirect loss—nearly as much as will be~ realised. throughout the whole Province for the year ending 31st March, 1875, as Goldfields revenues arising from the gold duty. ; How miserably impolitic it is to continue for ai single year anr unjust taxation so disastrous in its results. We' shall take occasion to follow up this subject a little more closely in future articles. The more it is looked into the more clearly it> how fatal to the Goldfields has been and is the maintenance of Provincial-institutions No one who will not do his>utmost. toadvocate the abolition of Otago Provincialism should be entertained for a moment on the hustings of an Otago G-oldfields constituency. -