CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 54, 4 March 1878, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the • Evening Mail.' Sir— You frequently publish extracts from Victorian papers on " the crisis," or state of affairs now going ou there. It is unfortunate for us that the papers quoted (•'Hamilton Spectator," "Ballarat Star," Melbourne " Argus," aud " Australasian," — the last really a weekly 'Argus") are all ultra-Tory papers, and only represent one side of the question (not that Sleepy Hollow cares much for anything that occurs outside her own limited borders.) The battle now going on in Victoria only foreshadows a struggle 'that will convulse mauy other centres before lopg. You extract from the '< Hamilton Spectator" an item on the '• crusade against capital" in Victoria. The outcry and movement is not so much against «•' capital" when legitimately used as against capital when it is used against the interests of j the community. In Victoria the squatters or station holders frequently have from 20 to 60 square miles of land in their possession. Some firms hold 200,000 acres in one block, and it has not been obtained by fair means. Duruuiylsm. and corruption have been rampant The banks are bound up with the station interests, and have for years resisted all efforts at reform. The opposition (not merely the working men) feel they are pinched— but can hardly tell where— and they cry out against "capital" because our language does not supply another equivalent word. Th.c banking interests try "to complicate matters by refusing aid to contractors carrying on extensive works. Shire Councils very properly refuse to enter into such contracts or authorise expenditure— because a large portion of treir revenue comes from the Central Go-vernment-aud *f tfye Council still refuse to pass the Appropriation Bill only a revolution can make them. In the past, " : capital," as it is called for want of a better term, has paid no taxes to the general re veue; in the future it Mill pay — if not its proper share — a much larger proportion thau it has hitherto done. Properties produciug £10,000 to £50,000 per annum have paid only as much to the revenue as manufacturers who realise only £500 to £1000 a yej,r from their business, and employ thirty or forty hands at from £2 to £3 per week, while the run-holders employ fifteen to twenty hands only at 20s to 30s per week. The Berry Ministry are pledged to » break up" these large properties, hence the troubla. That capital for many years has had an. undue share of the profits produced by labor has been long apparent. How it is to be prevented or altered without revolution is the question a burning question. Its agitation will not be conaued to Victoria. Ten years ago — 1867 — the Legislative Council of Victoria refused to pass an Appropriation Bill, and caused the greatest distvesT for seven months. Then the Min'stry did not discharge the Government officials who were not paid during that, timeand suffered greatly in consequence. — Yours, &c, Traveller.