GOLDFIELDS TAXATION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 321, 23 April 1875, Page 3

GOLDFIELDS TAXATION.

The following communication from the Central Association to Mt. Donald Held has been handed to„u3for publication:—

Central Mining Association, St. Bathans, loth April, 1875 To the Provincial Secretary, Dunedih:,! "~-

SiR, —I have the honor to bring under your notice the present state of the movement initiated last year in the Provincial Council for the purpose of partially remitting .thejspecial taxation at present imposed on the goldminers of Otago for the benefit of Provincial revenue. The miners watched with great interest the effort made by your Government to carry'out the expreascd-wish of s 'the Oouncil : by special Ordinance, which it was hoped would have been assented to. Prom the memorandum from the Colonial Secretary to your Govern- ' ment I understood the General ".Government would have no objection to allow the Province to forego a portion of the special Goldfields revenue delegated to it, if found in excess of the special expenditure needed in consequence of that delegation. - As 'representing the miners of Otago, I am directed to request you would be so good,' before the ensuing session of the Council, as to inform me in what direction and to what extent you would be prepared to" meet the miners in any effort which might be made to obtain a partial relievement frdm the taxation the Goneral Government does not participate in, and which the Colonial Secretary sees no reason your Government should not partially forego, in a simpler manner than by special legislation—if it should be again thought by the Council such relievement was fair, and for the genera] interest of the Province.

I have also to ask whether your Government will, in this year's Estimates, set'apart a sufficient sum to provide fire-proof safes for the various Registrar's offices •■ on-the Goldfields. In many of these, documents, on which the titles to property of great value depend, are accumulating, and, as at present kept on open shelves, might he readily stolen; and, in the event of fire, notßing could save them from being burnt, ~ -- I have the honortojbe, " "_J ] . „ .'L -L Yours obediently, •.*1 ' . .1 .'£'. John Ewing, ~-~J President Otago Mining , * , Association. \ ■■-