Page 2 Advertisements Column 3

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4605, 23 December 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

Electoral Notices TO THE ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF WELLINGTON. Gentlemes, —As I shall be the last candidate proposed on the hustings to-morrow, the wind may be taken out of my sails by those gentlemen who will have priority in addressing you. I learn that they intend to make long speeches, and that my chance of a long stump will be very small. I, therefore, take this opportunity to touch on two subjects of paramount importance to you. In my opinion the first and most serious subject that demands your attention is that of Civil Service pensions. I object to any pension from the State except for services in the field, where men, as it were, serv° their country with their lives in their hand. But Civil Service pensions are a downright robbery of the taxpayers. If a man is in the constant "employ of the State he ought to provide for old age in the same way as others have to do who have not had that permanency of employment enjoyed in the Civil Service. If the pay is insufficient, increase it! Underpaid labor is dear, and unprofitable to the employer. The pension list of the colony is attaining enormous proportions, and every year will add to the magnitude, unless the system is at once abolished. If it cannot be abolished, I would make it a condition that the pensioner should be resident in the colony. Absentee pensioners are agreater curse than absentee landowners. We can reach the latter by a property tax, but the former would be a drain on your resources. The next important thing for your consideration is the property and income-tax. The other candidates for your suffrages appeal; to be in a fog as to the proper mode of imposing and collecting the tax, for the simple reason that they have had no personal experience of the matter, while I have paid an income-tax for nearly twenty years. Now, taking into consideration the circumstances of working men, professional men, and the Civil Service, the tax should commence on incomes of £2OO per annum, with an allowance or reduction of the first £l5O, which, I consider, is an equivalent sum for providing the necessaries of life for the support of a man and his family. Thus, a person with £2OO per annum, would pay on £SO only. But, as incomes from trade and professions are more precarious than incomes from property, there should be a difference in the late of payment—thus, an income from the labor of a man's hands or the workings of his brain—and brain work, gentlemen, is the most destructive to the human frame—should be taxed at the rate of, say fourpence in the pound, while the income from property, mortgages, bank shares, and other tangible securities, should be assessed at sixpence in the pound. Two and a half per cent, on a rent roll of £SOO per year is a mere fleabite, while a tax of six pounds eight shillings deducted from the same amount of a man's hard earnings means a week's work. Gentlemen, I put my views on these two subjects thus early before you, that you may have time to consider their bearings on your financial condition previous to the nomination, so that you may question the candidates on the subject. I am no orator, as Travers is; I am not so learned a man as Mr. Pearce ; I am not an old and respected settler, like Mr. Hunter ; but I will endeavor to show you on the hustings that Mr. Hunter's estimate of ten shillings and eightpence per head, collected by Customs duties from the inhabitants of the colony, is only an eighth part of the sum actually paid. Ido not say he has 'wilfully misrepresented the fact, but that he spoke at random and without that due thought which a man in his position ought to have exercised. I am, gentlemen, Yours truly, C. MOODY. December 19. TO THE ELECTORS OF THE WAIRARAPA. Gentlemen, —Having had the honor to represent you for the last eleven years in the iament of New Zealand, I again place my ces at your disposal should you think fit to re-elect me, While not thinking it necessary within the limits of an address to express my views upon all the important questions to be discussed during the next session' of the General Assembly, yet I think it right to state my opinion upon the proposed constitutional changes now before the country. In reality, alterations in the forms of Government are not of such great importance as many people imagine. The success of all Governments entirely depend upon good administration, id without this no form of Government can be oi advantage to the people; therefore, as in the late session the abolition of the Provincial form of Government was decided by a large majority, and as the electors generally seem to approve of such decision, I shall be prepared if rejected to give my assistance in framing such aeaaures as will give to the people the best form of Local Seht-Government, with large powers and means to carry on the important duties which will then devolve upon them, but ™ order to furnish such means the manner of ising our revenue will have to be considerably altered, and property will have to contribute its fair share towards the taxation of the country, whilst the necessaries of life must be relieved from the high Customs duties now charged upon them. I also inform you that I will be no party to any scheme which might tend to bring about the disunion of the colony. As soon as the -writs are issued, I shall hold meetings in the several centres of population, when I shall be prepared to express my opinions upon the various matters whicli will have to be dealt with by the Parliament about to be elected. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, HENRY BUNNY. Fernside, Wairarapa, November 30, 1875. THE ELECTORAL DISTRICT OF THE HUTT. TO THE ELECTORS OF THE HUTT. GENTLEMEN,—I have the honor to intimate to you, emboldened by numerous promises of support, I am a candidate for the representation of your district in the new Pai-liament about to be elected. I shall take the opportunity of holding public meetings in various parts of the district, during the time open to me, previous to the polling day, and will have much pleasure in laying before you my views on all public questions of importance. Meantime, I need only indicate that I have long been an advocate, both in the Provincial Council of Wellington and elsewhere, for the abolition of provincial institutions ; and that I could have gone cordially along with the last Parliament, if it had even made shorter work of them than it did. But these institutions are now all but at an end, and I should strenuously oppose their resuscitation, whether in the shape of two or four, or any larger or smaller number of provinces. Their day is passed. The country requires, and I hope the electors will insist upon obtaining, complete colonial union, with one Legislature only. The laws will bo best administered by the people in their respective localities. The condition of the public finances demands careful study, so as not only to permit the large public works now in course of construction to be satisfactorily finished, but also with a view to a more equitable incidence of taxation. Important questions arising out of the constitutional reform which has been inaugurated, together with those others that the exigencies of a new country are continually suggesting, will have to be dealt with during the next General Assembly, and seem to make it necessary that public men should state clearly and unmistakeably the course they would be prepared to adopt; and you will only exercise a wise discretion in causing those soliciting your suffrages to do so. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, WILLIAM HUTCHISON. Wellington, Decembor 18.