The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5119, 20 August 1877, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1877.

The present House of Representatives was chosen on the Abolition ticket, and expressly for the purpose of carrying out that measure. It was the question of questions, and it may be truly said that at the time there was none other before the people. The stumping, the banquets, the conventions, the orations, the plots and schemes of Sir George Grey and his friends, were anti-abolition; the public mind was stirred throughout the length and breadth of the land; the journals of the “ party ” were worked without ceasing, as without scruple, and the whole standing army of jobbery and corruption, headed by the great Pro-Consul, were in the field, only to suffer an ignominious defeat at the hustings. The country answered to that appeal, and answered by an overwhelming majority of voices that Superintendents and Provincial Legislatures and Provincial Executives should be no more. We know how that decision of the people was resisted by those who affect to speak always in the name of the people, and to be the true representatives of the popular will; We know how in the Assembly, as on the hustings, the party was beaten, and only succeeded by their fierce perseverance in marring the measures necessary to the bringing into operation the new institutions, ‘ and we see them now, in a factious scrimmage for place, seeking to avenge their late discomfiture, and without even the pretence of ' reference to the opinions of the people or consideration for the public credit, seeking to dictate to the Government the immediate adoption of a new fiscal policy, and the instant reversal of a system of taxation which has been in operation for thirty years. To judicious men who have faith in free institutions, the spectacle which the House of Representatives presented on Friday last was saddening in the extreme. There was the ex-Governor of New Zealand, leader of the Opposition, the boastful parent of a popular Constitution which he abhors, the man who ruled despotically for years with an iron hand over, an unwilling people, demanding of Ministers, as.he might have demanded of his Colonial Secretary in his nominee Council in 1846, that they should retire to their Cabinet “for half an hour,” and produce a new scheme of finance, in which a land taxshould replace Customs revenue, and,- - when the Premier diffidently suggested that the Ministry might not be able to perform that feat within the time, —announcing that he was ready to do that trick “to-night.” If it were possible to believe for a moment that in this instance Sir George Grey was doing more than making a rattling and reckless move in a losing party game, it would be worth while to remind him of the opinions which in past times he himself pronounced as to the suitability of indirect taxation for revenue purposes in a colony of mixed races, and to ask him why the land of one section of the community should be taxed whilst the land of another section of the same community should be exempt from taxation. Why, the Maoris, who form an eighth of the whole population, and who in the North Island hold by far the greater extent of land, should be relieved of the contribution which they now, as it were unconsciously, and certainly without complaint or hardship, make, to the general revenue, whilst the burthen of maintaining those institutions specially provided for the native people, as well those the advantages of which they share in common with their European fellows, should be made a charge upon the land of Europeans alone. A railway or a road made with borrowed money through native land will improve that land as much as if it belonged to a pakeha. Why should the charge for that improvement be placed upon the back of the pakeha—the “ forty-acre ” men and small holders, who form the great bulk of the proprietors in the North—whilst the native was relieved of all responsibility, for not even the leader of the Opposition, wo presume, dares to propose the imposition of a tax upon native lands. It is probable that Mr. Karaitiana himself, if the alternative could be made clear to his dull intellect, would tell his great chief that he would rather buy sugar for, his “lillipee” at present rates than bo forced to pay a shilling an aero on. Ngatikahunguna lands in , furtherance .. . of Mr. Macandrbw’s new . scheme of railway extension in the South Island, or for the “ training” of Sir George Grey’s coming “race of freemen.” In truth, the ex-Governor does not now, and never did, really under-; stand finance. His capacity in that; respect is not equal; even to the small capacity of Mr. Rees ; but he rivals him in hardihood of assertion: and in contempt for Cooker,’ and is not less figurative in

his figures than that honorable and very voluble gentleman. In his Financial Statement, the Colonial Treasurer said ; —“I know, sir, tl at many persons whose opinions are entitled to great weight, from their position and their knowledge of the colony and its requirements, think that the time has arrived for levying a property and income tax ; and, if we were now in a position to deal with the Question of the re-adjustment of taxation, much might be said in support of such a tax. For my own part, lam very loth to open the question .of taxation at present. Our liabilities being what they are, the subject of taxation is not lightly to be touched. It is one which requires the most careful thought—it must be considered as a whole, and it would be quite impossible to deal with it satisfactorily during the present session. When our trunk railways are approaching completion, when we have had time to consolidate and settle down, and are able to determine our real requirements, then the whole incidence of taxation must be considered; but to deal with it now, in a fragmentary way, would, I think, be a serious mistake.” Which, may we venture to ask, is the more statesmanlike utterance, Sir George Grey’s or Major Atkinson’s 1 Here is the shadow of the coming event —taxation. The question is a large one. Is it to be settled “in half an hour,” in a faction fight in the House of Representatives, where open-mouthed abuse of the grossest kind and parliamentary dodges and tricks with the standing orders are the weapons of •ne side; or is it to have that mature consideration in the House of Representatives, as well as amongst the people outside, which is sought to be obtained for it by Mr. Woolcock’s motion, as well as by the warning note of the Colonial Treasurer? That is the point now in issue between Sir George Grey and the Government. The result of observation in countries enjoying free institutions is that when a legislative body has been elected in. a time of excitement for a specific purpose, and has accomplished that purpose, its constitution becomes more or less impaired in the process. Nothing less, however, than the adoption of Sir George Grey’s scheme of colonial finance would induce us to believe that the present House of Representatives had thus suffered.