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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 215, 19 October 1878, Page 5

Mr Swanson, in commenting on the proposal- to leave out the taxing of improvements, stated that in tbe affairs of life even industry did not always obtain its dv& reward. The bill proposed to leave but improvements, and thus doubly taxed the struggling farmer, who had not the' means to improve his farm. Sickness might visit him, floods might drown his stock or. crops, the very accident of position on. the wrong side of a;. hill, by exposure to winds, might blast his crops. All thelSe.'thingp, tended to prevent improvements resulting oa a well-culti-vated farm 5 but he must pay the same tax as his more flourishing neighbour with bis wel'- cultivated fieldg, his house, dtid out-buildings. The struggling man on Whom misfortune has already laid her heavy hand, is to be crushed by this unequal tax. Talking of the land as thegift of God, as he had there been told it was, all he ould say was, that his friends had not got much of it, and it appeared to him to have been very unequally distributed. "Taking of industry and brains , give me," says Mr Swanson, "luck. There are some men, models of industry, who never better themselves Men with brains only make mouey for others, while men with luck turn everything they touch into gold. Throw them in,tq the sea qnd, they pome up with a fish in enph hand--' The liouse laughed at his trenchant criticism, but voted for exempting improvements.