THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1875.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 321, 23 April 1875, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1875.

Ehom the quarterly return.s,nQwp.abr liahed we are able, ;to, ascertain the revenue obtained for the financial year ending 31 st March last. The revenue on the whole, owing almost entirely t-> the wholesale alienation of land,,is.sa£'- 1 to'be £ 100,666 in excess 'of the esti. mate. All that we are interested in at present is the returns underthe* Heads Gold-Export Duty, and Gtoldfields Revenue. \ u '_

JPhe amount collected as Gold Duty; jlias proved * to be £6OOO below the jamount;;colle,cted in 1874; the' figures" Ibeing 1873-4", £^504.65. 6d., and fol 1874-5, £11,502 6s. lid. This would off in the gold-returns !of over 66,000 ozs.- At the same jQ-pldfields; Kevenue-bas taken a ifrom £17,361 13s. 9d. to £26,557 14s, lid-.'lt thus appears that after all—' in spite of the poor return for duty—the Goldfields Revenue, as a whole, is increased; The truth is that the in--crease of revenue shown is not indicaany renewed or continued prosperity among the miners, but rather of the increase of-settlement,...„ All revenue collected 1 under the; Goldfields Acts is classed as Goldfields Eevenue. Agricultural,leases are granted .under G oldfields~Acts"; therefore, most illogically, agricultural lessees' rents are reckoned' as Goldfields.EeyeTiue. The rent paid by a man who rents" 200 acres is Goldfields Eevenue, and the rent paid by his big neighbor, who has 50,000 acres, is land .revenue ; or, more absurdly still, the pastoral tenant himself—who has a pre-emptive,;leas.e = ofJ 640 acres—pays for it tc Goldfields Eevenue, while for all his run. around it he-pays-to-land revenue. v A ""blocit of land is, we wilFsuppose, opened for settlement on Goldfields—as at Macraes;' On deferred payments the .-payments are land revenue; another block, a few miles-off,'also dri Goldfields, is opened'' Tor' settlement under/ the agricultural- lease -system, and the yearly .payments'..on it Goldfields Eevenue'.' The great increase during the year that * ;has .-.taken place in the amount of land taken up for settlement in the Tuapek'a and i; other districts, and to a small extent in our own, is the causeof the increase of the so-called Goldfields Eevenue. "What is really Goldfields Eevenue — collected in leases, miners' rights, and so forth, has decreased steadily during the" past few years, and this year is no exception to the rule. For the year ending" 31st March,' 1873, the Duty was £20,431, while the Eevenue was only £18,716. For the year ending-31st March, 1874, the results were nearly equal—Duty, £17,504 artd Goldfields Eevenue, £17,361. For the year ending in : March last the results, as we have stated above, are Duty, £11,502, and Goldfields Eevenue, £26,557, Before the agricultural lease rents increased so as to income a matter of consideration what was purely:Goldfields Eevenue was a' little under the: amount, collected for -Duty when the rate was 2s. -6d. peroz., and .about equal in 1874-5, -when the rate: was only 3s, So that the revenue derived from special; 'Taxation [par the, year ended may be said to be really about £23,000/ instead of £38,060. The convenient blind afforded by theunnatural classification of the uue ddos not at first eight, "make this apparent. In future, we hope, agricultural rents on GoldfieUls —■

whether on deferred payments or agricultural leases- —will be classed together wit)i pfftoral rents as laDd revenue: !;V

Special jkixatipn is slowly doing its •>-yro'rjt,jgpd driving the miners into other other countries. With 2s. 6d. on ever? oz. paid to the goldbuyer, and 4s. to the tax-gatherer, it is not possible t For the majority of miners to make a livelihood 'in-inaccessible'and unopened dwtricts. It is, we fear, hopeless to expect the ■ ProvincraH3ouHcil to endeavor again to practically reduce the'taxation. A' hbridjide effort was made 'last year to meet the miners a little "way, but the Council could not force what the majority wished ; and even the majority could not be said to have any great enthusiasm in the question. If 6d. had been conceded last year the loss ito rgyenue would have, as?it>has proved, only been JS2B76—barely the price of an ordinarily cheap bridge, and; at§the present rate of decrease in the yield, of gold, next year would be barely £2OOO. -The result- obtained would be so trifling that, unless the Government is prepared, to aljolish the Duty altogether,, it is not worth asking for. Such total abolition-does not appear possible until the Gdldfieids throughout the Colony are placed under ont"system control^';"Neither, per-'" haps, is"'it proposed and made law under which , a. wealthy .Province, such as Auckland, will be ablejbojraise sufficient revenue" Tro'm all those benefitted by local works —whether commercial menj farmers, 05 miners—without to depend for revenue upon special taxation im-. posed on onte'class'alone for'the* benefifcqf the rest. ]t is customary to of the™Nprthern Provinces -as impecunious; so.-they are under the^ ..present system, but their resources are .immense; and, if-freed-from the -cum- • brous prohibitive machinery which at present is crushingtheir very life their resources will speedily be ; placed undfer contribntion to "supply local revenue sufHcient fo'r'all ordinary expen T diture,-,without being unfair or oppresr Bive to any one class or interest.