The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 142, 16 June 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1874.

The telegraph informed us a few days ago of au important resolution having been agreed to by tbo Provincial Council of Otugo iv reference to the gold duty, namely, that the sum of sixpence an ounce should be returned to the exporters of gold, thus practically reducing the duty in that province from two shillings to eighteenpence an ounce. From thiß it is clear that there is a widely prevailing opinion in that province that a further general reduction in tho duty should be made throughout the colony, and consequently we may look for the matter being again brought before the Assembly at its next session. In Otago, where the provincial revenue ia enormous, an apparently trifling reduction such as this may be a matter of no importance whatever to the Treasury, but in Nelson it is very different. Already are we crippled to a considerable extent by the action taken by the House upon this question, something like £2000 being struck off our revenue at a time when we can ill afford to lose two thousand pence, and auy further step in the same direction will be attended with serious consequences, limiting, as it must do, the power of our local Government io make roads, . and to provide for the maintenance of law und order on onr goldfields. If the Colonial

legislation takes upon itself to reduce the provincial revenues, it should, in justice to the provinces affected, undertake those works which have hitherto been provided for by the Provincial Governments, but this it is scarcely likely to do. The strange part of the whole affair is tbat it is not the miners themselves that are moving in tbe matter, but some of their representatives who, without any instructions to tbat effect from their constituents, have attempted to curry favor with tbem by initiating a reform that is injurious rather ihan beneficial to those whom it is sought to benefit. Supposing the earnings of tbe miners engaged upon the goldfields in this province to average an ounce a week, does anyone suppose that tbey would be much better, off by being relieved of <an annual payment to the Treasury of twenty-six shillings ? On the other hand, if (here are some thousands of men paying this amount, the aggregate is something very considerable, and will provide, for the construction of many miles of roads by which each individual miner is benefitted to an extent far beyond the actual value of his particular contribution. We are very glad to find that the New Zealand Times has taken the matter up, and we cannot do better than conclude these remarks with a quotation from an article which appeared in that journal on the 10th inst. Our contemporary in commenting upon the recent action of the Otago Provincial Council says: — "In several of the other provinces in which mining operations are carried on, there has not yet been any active movement either for tbe abolition or reduction of tbe duty, and none knows better than tbe administrators in these Provinces that, by the reduction of the duty, the difficulty of providing for the necessities of the miners will be immeusely increased — increased to such an extent, in some instances, as to materially interfere with the management and the prosperity of an interestof paramount local importance. This is especially likely to prove to be the case in tbe Provinces of Nelson and Westland. Upou the maintenance of gold duty in these Provinces depeuds in a great measure the means of providing official supervision, police protection, and the provision of roads and tracks in tbe mining districts, end its material reduction will inevitably lead to material inconvenience in these respects, while it will contribute nothing to the wants or wishes of the miniug community. AmoDg tbe practical workers on the diggings there is, in fact, much less complaint against tbe duly than there is among candidates on the hustings or among the representatives on the floor of tbe Houss. Its reduction or abolition is not sought for by the former with anything like the eagerness which is occasionally said to exist, and, even if it were, it is the experience of Provincial authorities, that by it they are now enabled to do an amount of good in the construction of local worka, and in the consequent development of mining districts, which, in the future absence' of any similar source of revenue, it will be impossible to effect. Cheap and Bimple in its collection, the tax is one which recommends itself as preferable to many others which migbt be imposed if it be abolished, and until there is a more general and marked expression of discontent on the part of the miners, it would become the Assembly to consider well how far it should further proceed in abolishing what is essentially Provincial revenue, and a revenue with which some of tbe Provinces cannot yet easily dispense. It is doubtless satisfactory to know that, in the case of Otago, tbe goldfields are now so accessible and capable of being co economically managed, that a further reduction of duty can be contemplated without any fear of injuring the interests of one of its most important industries, but the same, it is to be feared, cannot be said of tbe mining districts in all other parts of the Colony, and it is desirable that, if at all possible, invidious distinctions between Province and Province should be avoided,"