GOLDFIELDS TAXATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4283, 11 December 1874, Page 3

GOLDFIELDS TAXATION.

The following memorandum from the Cen tral Association has been forwarded to us witl the request that it be published Central Mining Association, > Naseby, Otago.

To the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. .. , Sm —i have the honor to draw yonr attention to correspondence relative to the disallowance of the Otago Gold Duty Repayment Ordinance of IW4, more especially to your memorandum of July 18th, 1574 intimating to Ids Honor the Superintendent of Otago the disallowance of the Ordinance by His Excellency. , .. You therein state that the reason why the Ordinance was disallowed was because sufficient provision had not, it appeared to you, been made to protect the revenue of other provinces, and you suggested that provision might be made for allowing thy bonus (or remission) directly to the miners, on their satisfying the Warden or other authorised officer that they obtained gold within any district, and forwarded it to the coast for shipment. The Otago miners gather from the tenoi of 3 our letter that there is 110 reason why the duty should not bo rebated in any province if the Legislature of such X beg respectfully to direct your attention to a few features in connection with the whole question of direct taxation on the gold miners, which 111 a press of business, will have, no doubt, escaped your notice The first Gold Duty Act, of 1858, contained a provision that His Excellency could at any tune before the next session of the Assembly rebate or altogether abolish the Gold Duty, so jealous was the Assembly of that day that no suspicion should be entertained of making any attempt to swell the general revenue from such special taxation. The Act of lb5S and all subsequent Acts expressly declare that such duty, although , collected by the machinery of the Customs shall not in sense be taken to be Customs duties, but shall be land revenue—this provision being clearly introduced to protect the provinces to which goldfields maintenance had been delegated from any loss arising from such maintenance. . . , ~ , In Otago, at the present time, in spite of the depression in goldmining, caused almost entirely by the pressure of special and general taxation, amounting to £ls per miner, the amount of gold duty collected is double the amount spent for maintenance; while the whole amount of special taxation collected as , duty, licenses, leases, &c., is quadruple the amount spent in maintenance —the figures being for last year, in round numbers, £33,000 collected, as against £BOOO spent in its maintenance. I have no reason to suppose that the position or matters is more favorable to the gold-miner in other provinces. . . You will at once see that the Provincial Government of Otago is reaping a large revenue for expenditure on coastal works by the oppression of a young industry. In other words, that the Colonial Government, by a liberal vote of £200,000 for Water Supply on Goldfields is endeavoring to foster mining, while, the Provincial Governments are allowed to undermine any benefit which might accrue from such works, by taxing the miners £5 per head. If there is any reason why miners for the more precious minerals in the colony should be taxed on an assumption of a peculiar prerogative of royalties attaching to the State, the Colonial Government, as administrator for the Crown and providore for the whole people, should receive such taxation. The fact, however, that it is not so—that the provinces are in receipt of such taxation raised on such pretence of royalties—abundantly proves that there is no such valid assumption or excuse for special taxation in dxistencc.

On behalf of the gold-miners of Otago—numbering between 6000 and 7000—1 have, by instruction of my Association, laid these facts before you, and have to request that you will cause inquiry to be made into the truth of what is alleged before the ensuing session of Parliament, that tho Government may. in its wisdom, devise a scheme of colonial administration of the goldfields on such a base as will for ever preclude a swelling of revenue by means of a direct tax on an industry almost wholly followed by working

I have further to request that you will cause communication to be opened up with the Provincial Executive of Otago, so that there may be no misunderstanding as to what course should be taken should the Council again deem it expedient to reduce, or affirm the desirability of reducing, the gold duty, so that the Provincial Government may not again be able to screen direct opposition to the will of the people, expressed through their representatives (as was done last session) by the framing of an Ordinance which its legal adviser must have known was unnecessary, and could hardly fail to throw the onus and unpopularity of continued goldfields taxation upon the General Government, while the inferior Executive continued to enjoy the profits. On behalf of the gold-ralners of Otago, I am instructed to ask the assistance of the Colonial Government in the protection of a great industry, now suffering from paralysis, which is not caused by the attraction the public works offer to the miners, but from the pressure of taxation collected for the support of governments with which they have no sympathy. This is evidenced by the fact that our best miners are leaving the colony.—l have, &c,, Georok Clarke, Secretary Central Mining Association.