THE GOLD DUTY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 326, 4 June 1875, Page 2

THE GOLD DUTY.

■y.-< The: much vexeid questibn : oFgold duty redjictio'ri i^atp^s^tgrjaatiy;exercising, members: representirig-Gold-fields districts. It wilThe;tq6; Bad if*, after the strong hope held out inithe Superintendent's ;this coveted reduction is not effected. ; -ifever having much sympathy '-] with;,:the' cry raised of special yet iwje.iave always held that if there is the;slights.. est chance of the; .tax'joaalung the difference between profit and loss iriiniining, and in.effect starving"out the:industry,, it had better be foregone, for if not it will cleirly cease r to. be productive. The remarkable reduction shown in revenue from gold duty this year we cannot account for... There is a disparity between.the.retainis,; showing the amount of gold brought down by .escort and the duty collected— that is, when we compare the amounts,;b?ought down for the last two years'; and the re T venue obtained during the same period. It would appear as if'there had been some mistake in. tbe sum; credited to gold duty for: the year .1.873-4., probably a bungle betw.een : the !tw.o;iteim G.oldfields revenue and gold duty. Until this year what was called G-oldfields revenue was,' to a- great;exte;n%/made up" of pure land revenue—rent derived from agricultural leases.'. .Practically, »if; the Colonial Government are wil ling to allow the. Province to do' what it likes with its revenue, we hardly' : see "why the defenders of Provincialism. should object. Surely-this; id what they appear to be fighting l let, when the' disposal 'of their own revenue is freely offeredthem, they raise 'legal .quibbles as to why they should not be so entrusted. If the Government, see fit to rebate the duty ; they cati'db so. If they do not no one canary >yell complain> The question: is<:One of merely local policy, and not of legal ;technicalties. The sum is • noW' so small, aiid it ismadeso much of.asa special mining grievance, that it might as well be given up. At the most it only means that there will be a little less' money available for roads and bridges.—' Star.* ";.;Xr