INTERPROVINCIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 136, 8 June 1880, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL.

MR. GLADSTONE'S CROWNING ' TRIUMPH. THE INVERCARGILL REFORM ASSOCIATION SALUTES HIM! ! Invbrcabgill, Tuesday.: At a meeting of the Reform [Association it was resolved to send the following address to Mr Gladstone: — "From this remote dependency of the Brisish Empire the members of the Invercargill Liberal Reform ? Association desire to convey tbeir congratulations on the success of the Liberal cause in the parent country. They regard it as the opening of a new era of wise and beneficent legislation, of a peaceful foreign policy, and of prosperity to commerce, and at the same time as auguring the success in the land of their adoption of kindred principles of the Liberals, whose chief exponent in New Zealand is Sir George Greyl" „..-...,• V f ' " ■V " Wellington, Monday night. " At a meeting of the Licensed Victuallers' Association* this afternoon, the new Licensing Bill was disculsed, and the following amendments were proposed :— The fee to be reduced to jE30 j with a uniform 1 1 o'clock license ; family, hotel licenses to be struck . out, as the result would be that all boardinghouses would get licenses; Clubs to be owned jointly by members, and to be under the supervision of the police ; malt liquors

'not to be sold, in less quantities than five gallons. It was stated that members of the Legislature supplied private cellars from Bellamys, at cost price; and a resolution was , passed that Bellamys should stand in the same position a 9 Clubs. The meeting adjourned until to-morrow, when the discussion will be resumed. Tuesday. The Licensed Victuallers met again this morning when several suggestions and additions in reference to the new Act were passed, and a deputation will be appointed to place them before the local members of the House oi Representatives. TiSiaru, Tuesday. A woman named Mra Morrison was found drowned in the river near Pleasant Poiot today. She is supposed to have been crossing the river and was swept away. A Committee of the Harbor Board are actively engaged in colleciing evidence against Mr Blacketl's report on the Titnaru breakwater, and the evidence will be forwarded to Parliament. All the local- papers comment very strongly on the inconsistency displayed in Mr Blackett's statement, especially where he quotes Sir John Coode and Mr Carruthers. At a Committee meeting of the Harbor Board, Mr Woolcoonibe,. Captain Cain, and, other old and influential residents' testified to the. utter inaccutacy of the statements contained in Mr Blackett's report as to the damage done to the railway works through the erection of the breakwater. The members of the Level Road Board passed a resolution affirming Mr Blackett's representation in. reference to the encroachment of the sea at Caroline Bay to be contrary to local knowledge and experience. j • . ; • The same body resolved ..to prosecute further their action for having' theT Levels district constituted a County. I The wife of Thomas Marris,- laborer, had some words with ,her husband on Sunday week over Marris getting drunk 1 over night and left her home; , Her body was found yesterday in the Opihi River. The petition against the Property Tax : baß been largely signed, and- will be for■warde<l to Wellington at once. * f ' 1 Dunedin, Tuesday. Over 500 persona attended a meeting last night to consider the Property Tax, "and a resolution was carried almoet unanimously in favor of the repeal of the Tax as being unsuited to the colony. A large meeting at Milton last night condemned the Property Tax. Private advices report tha arrival 'oi the Chimborazo at Plymouth after a passage of forty days. Oauiauu, Tuesday. Mrs Garland, who was injured by a carriage accident on Saturday, has since died. • The man who was killed on the Ngapara railway line was under the influence of liquor, and a verdict of accidental death was returned. w ..-.:.r Christ chtjkch, Tuesday. - The operations of the Benevolent Association are highly .successful. Yesterday over 80 persons were supplied with food. The subscriptions to date amount to £270. The Licensed Victuallers have held several private meeting? to consider the new Licensing Bill. :.' . • Auckland, Tuesday. "The Rev. " Atterbury, alias Cornock, was again brought up this morning to answer various indictments against him. The charge of larceny as bailee is now, being proceeded with. -■ Joseph MeNamara deposed to having given the prisoner £10 to pay Quick for the hire of . carriages " at his wedding. The prisoner appropriated £6, returning the prosecutor £4, and pretending that he had paid Quick £3. ' . - ■ Later. The charge of larceny as a bailee against the " Rev. " Atterbury has broken down, because MeNamara did not entrust him with any definite amount to pay to Quick.

that are likely to be "made in the Customs tariff, and, as will be seen by an extract which appears elsewhere, the Duuedin importers have been clearing all the tea and sugar they have in bond in -anticipation of the expected reimposition of the duties taken off duriDg Mr Balance's tenure of office. But the largest amount of interest unquestionably centres around tho property tax, agniost which in its present form popular opinion has been so loudly expressed that some modifications must assuredly be proposed by the Government, although it is no!; likely that the net amount to be raised by the tax will be materially lessened, owing to the necessity that exists for obtaining the money. The difficulty in which the Government finds itself is well put by the Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Herald, whose information is generally reliable. He says : — " The Property Tax must be collected ; all persons whose opinion ia worth anything say so. The financial position is very bad, though the Ministers have been trying to soften it down. They have been in torture over the whole subject. They believed, from the first, that a property tax, coming at the time of a cessation of public works expeuditure, would be a severe trial to the colony, -but the -shock has been "greater".' tban they anticipated. They are anxiously considering how the objectionable features can be,softened. They have, been considering" whether they cannot omit personal property, and will do something in that way. The money, however, they must have, for this : year, atjall events." The Olago. Daily Times states that " the feeling of irritation.regarding ilia" pro-v perty taxhaa been greatly intensified since the., issue of the'schedules," and considers; thatas, according to the Premier's lown state-' ment,, fully five-sixths of. the^people are ixjempted from the tax, it is a fpity to Irritate? and, bewilder them with' elaborate jfejtur'ns: The Times thinks that ' a statutory declaration before aJustice of the Peace should' be sufficient in cases when the real and personal property is below £500. It further suggests that, to allay popular feeling, it would be well. to exclude personal property from the operation of the Act, and to reduce the exemption.for real property down to £250. The latest information we have from on the subject is contained in a sub-leader of the N.Z 'Jimei of yesterday; which says : — "We understand that the Government intend calling a meeting of all their supporters in the House prior to the delivery of the Fnancinl Statement, to •discuss with them the modifications which they deem it desirable to make in the property tax. Wo are not in a position to state what the precise nature of those modifications is. likely to be, but we have reason to belive that they will include . the exemption of personal property of the nature of household effects, furniture, clothing, jewellery, works of art, and so forth ; the widening of the area of the remaining taxation, so as to recoup to the Treasury the amount of revenue thus abandoned ; and the omission from the returus of all particulars not absolutely required for the purposes of the department. We understand that the position of the finances 13 such that no actual diminution of the aggregate T amount of taxation for the current finanancial year is at all probable, but that, oft the contrary, the revenue to be derived from the property tax and all other available sources will barely be sufficient to meet the necessary expenditure, even after all possible reductions have been effected. This, however, will be fully explained in the Financial Statement. In the meantime the Government, we learn, aro endeavoring to devise a means of divesting fthp property tax,. as far as possible, of those features which appear to be most repugnantto the feelingsrof the people, with a view to raising the money that is imperatively required for the public service in such a inanuer as to cause the smallest amount of annoyance,"