THE Mount Ida Chronicle THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1876.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 405, 21 December 1876, Page 3

THE Mount Ida Chronicle THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1876.

Once more Christmas is at hand, and one more corner will be turned before another number of our paper is issued. Who would bid Time stay P And yet, as a rule, all growl except the young when he flies by. At Christmas we trteat him better, and muster all our jollity , to speed the fleeting guest, and to gladden a portion of our yearly life by such happy memories of the sacred season we commemorate as it is possible for us to sieee in this bustling material world of ours. So it should be. In the Intezior we have much to complain of; but we have much to be satisfied with. We throw aside our complaints for once, and look at our privileges. Our climate is excellent. There is no need to measure grndgingly the cubic feet of air allowttblo to each person. We have hitherto escaped scarlet fever and other kindrod evils of abased civilisation. Wo are spared the effeminacies of false socio Ly. We can do as we like ; and why should not all be happy ? . That it may be so always with our readers is our wish. Cares there must be. We need not overlay them with our holidays. But shared together, the care lightened by the holiday, even those, the darkeners of our homes, leave us —not temporarily buried, but sun-dried. It is not our province to trench upon the private threshhold. Nevertheless, at this season we ask to be forgiven for so far intruding as to wish one and all A Me bey Christmas and a Happx New Yeah.

Given practical County Government under the Act of 1876, for two years and all hopes of repealing the Gold Duty, of reducing mining lease rents, or of relieving taxation upon miners in the slightest degree are at nn end. We say practical County Government, as opposed to, the permissive existence in suspension, which can and probably will be preferred by nine out of every ton County Councils elected, and which is recommended by the ' Daily Times.' The Walcatipu correspondent of the

'Evening Star' reports by telegram, to that journal, that the miners are content to bear their share of the taxation. This is peculiarly refreshing, as their share is the whole. We are quite certain that the owners of property will not consent to strike a rate while the proceeds of mining taxation are sufficient to pay the administrative expenses of the Council, and a little more. For a year two the County Councils in Goldfield districts will exist on hopes of, and agitations for, increased borrowing powers, in order to clap a saddle on posterity, as has been so admirably done by the municipalities of Q.ueenstown, Clyde, Cromwell, Tuapeka, and to a small extent, by Naseby. As, however, the majority of miners in Lake County are Chinese, and Chinese have no votes, perhaps the miner, who, we are asked to believe is satisfied—ho who is one quarter minor, a half farmer, one fourth stock-job-ber, and one fourth Johnny-all-sorts on the sly —may be content to bear his share of the County taxation; that share, not being the wholo. With regard to bona fide miners, to men working singly or in Companies, who make their living by mining as an industry worthy to be followed in itself and for itself, it is worse than nonsense to attempt to mislead opinion by telegraphing, if it be they-that is meant " That the miners are content to bear their share of Local Taxation."

There does not seem much logic or justice in the astonishing inference that, because the Government Treasury is empty, or nearly so, that, therefore, the class who have been allowed to take the least root in the country; —who have been jealously prevented as far as possible from .obtaining tho right to found homes near their claims, which Macandrew, Bradshaw, and 11. Clarke would have got for them if they had been able; —that the -members of this class should contribute the sole fund for the development of improvements leading to whatever settlement there may be in the Goldfields districts of the Colony in the future. Admitting the wisdom of the State divorcing itself of its interest in the Interior of Otago, Westland, and Auckland, and that it is right and proper to throw the onus upon the present inhabitants of the Interior districts, at least a fair all-round start should have been made. This has not been done. On tho other hand it will be found that in every County Council in which property gets a footing the taxation collected from the working class will be the only revenue placed to the Counties credit, for even the bulk of the publican's licenses, we regret to say, are paid for out of working men's earnings. There will be no rate. As Mr. Stout pointed out at Mornington, when plurality of votes was given to property, the promoters of the County system outside the Government benches never intended that their should be any County rate. Mr. Ormond on the Government Bench says the same. We do not advocate such, a rate, for it is beyond all dispute unjust and impolitic to tax the present population in the Interior for their enterprise in coming into it. The effect of such a system, if attempted in earnest, must be to depopulate and to reduce the value of so-called pastoral properties, and so reduce the rents paid to the State. At the same time it is a one-sided injustice to squeeze the mineis in order to prevent an injustice to others who are quite able to take care of themselves. But for the Thames district, and its defenders, Messrs. Whitaker and Rowe, the Gold Duty might at least have been got rid of. The reason given at the time was a plausible one. The real reason, thanks to the local kmowledge of the editor's of the ' Guardian ' and ' Southern : Mercury,' we now know to be that £IO,OOO was to be advanced to the Thames consolidation of local bodies—the Northern Pleiades—in order to buy more oil for the big pump in which Messrs Whitaker and iiowe are chief promoters, if not chief owners. Pleiades won't consolidate, so, as our contemporaries put it,all the fat is in the fire," i.e., the oil is still a-wanting for the big pump. Yet for such a swindle as this, in order that Messrs. Whitaker and Rowe may sweetly smile at the meetings of directors in Pump street, Thames, the miners of Otago, who don't speculate, but who do work, have to pay 4 per cent on their average yearly earnings of £7O per head. Also, in order that my Lord Tomnoddy and Co. may drive about in silver spangled harness untaxed, or be taxed by possibility unjustly. And, greatest reason of all, in order that an impecunious Government may borrow more money without letting the public creditor know it is already obliged indirectly to levy a tax upon property, and a £3 poll tax upon a section of its European working men.