New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, July 11, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 411, 11 July 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, July 11, 1849.

Among the ordinances passed in the recent session of the Legislative Council is one for repairing roads in country districts. As the Bill was not printed, we have not been able to make ourselves acquainted with its ! provisions, but, we believe, its principal feature is an attempt to provide funds for the repair of the country roads by tolls to be collected by means of turnpikes. We imagine that almost the only reason for this attempt to establish turnpikes in New ZealaDd is because it is an institution of the old country, and it is supposed that it must therefore succeed here. With the view of proving the fallacy of this supposition we have extracted from a recent volume of Chambers' Journal, a short paper on this subject, in which it is clearly shown that turnpikes are found to be a very cumbrous and inadequate means for providing the necessary funds for this purpose, both in England and Scotland, that the cost of collection amounts to £44, £60, £80, and in some instances even to £100 per cent of the sum collected, and that from the extension of railways' and the diminished traffic on turnpike roads, turnpikes are fast becoming, in the language of the writer, " a social barbarism." The cases appear to be analagous, for we question very much if the traffic on any of the most frequented roads in any set-

tleraentin New Zealand is equal to the average traffic of the roads in the country districts of the mother country. And if it be found that the tolls collected, after the cost of collection is paid, are insufficient to .keep the roads in repair, it requires but little sagacity to predict that the attempt to establish tolls in New Zealand must necessarily prove a failure. In levying any tax the principle to be studied is, not the gross revenue, but the amount of net revenue to be obtained, that is, how the greatest amount is to be -collected at theye v lea^t expense of collection. We think that after a road is once made the cost of keeping it in repair should be borne by the inhabitants of the district, who ought to have the power of raising and- expending the funds for that purpose. It most concerns the interest of those who live in any particular district that the road shall be kept in a good state of repair, while, if they have to provide the funds it is fair to suppose, if these funds be placed under their control, they will take care that they are laid out to the greatest advantage. In raising a fund for the repair of roads, we think the most equitable plan would be to tax o ( r rate each i horse used for draught or riding belonging to the district, and a moderate land tax. By such an arrangement all those who make use of or are benefited by the road would contribute to keeping it in repair, the tax would fall lightly on all parties, while the absentees, the parties most benefited by ,the increased rents they receive, would also contribute their proportion to local improvements. Any arrangement which does not include the absentees would be a gross injustice to the resident colonists; any attempt to provide for the repair of roads without a land tax is an injury to the colony by perpetuating the evils of absenteeism and land-jobbing. The point of most importance to the colony is not the number of owners but the number of cultivators of the soil.

A memorial from the merchants and other persons engaged in business at Te Aro, to his Excellency the Lieutenant- Governor, is in course of signature against the proposed removal of the Post office from the head of the Bay. The Government have lately taken possession of the building formerly used as Barrett's Hotel, which has been fitted up as offices for the accommodation of the different departments of the Government, and we understand it is intended to remove the Post office from its present convenient situation at the head of the Bay to a small building immediately adjoining Barrett's Hotel. Now, although it may be considered very convenient that the different Government offices should be collected together in one spot, yet this principle of centralization will hardly apply to the Post office ; as its removal from where the greatest amount of business is carried on, and from the immediate vicinity of the Custom House, the Bank, Commissariat and other offices, all of which are at the head of the Bay, would prove a serious obstruction to business. One of the most satisfactory proofs that can be given that its present situatton has been found best adapted to public convenience is the fact, that some five or six years ago the Post office was removed from a spot near to where it is proposed to transfer it to its present locality, beoause it was found to be generally inconvenient to those engaged in business, and since that time the number of new stores and buildings erected at Te Aro greatly outnumbers those built at the opposite end of the Town.

The New Cx,ock. — The new clock brought by Mr. Mackay from England, has been fixed in the church at Te Aro. We publish the list of subscriptions hitherto received, in the hope that those who feel disposed to contribute to so useful a work as the erection of the first public clock in New Zealand will lose no time in forwarding their names. Subscriptions are received by the Rev. R. Cole, M.A., (who has made himself personally responsible for the payment of the expence incurred in the purchase and erection of the clock) at the Union Bank of Australia, and at the office of this paper.

One of the highest floods that has been remembered for several years, past, occurred at the Hutt on Sunday last, occasioned by .the heavy rains which had fallen during the previous twenty-four hours : ' the water rose several inches higher than any previous flood this winter. The new road has been damaged in several places, , ,