Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5463, 30 September 1878, Page 2

On Friday last Mr. Wakefield made a most able criticism of the policy of the Government, contained in the Laud -Tax Bill, the points of which will bear recapitulation. He first alluded to the resolution passed last year, that it was desirable to alter the incidence of taxation by the imposition of a general pro* perty and income tax. “If the Government had done this,” he said, “he would have given such a measure his warmest support, and He was sure it would have received favorable treatment from four-fifths of the members of the House. That was the tax the country had demanded, and the one that had been promised by the Government. Instead of thisthe Ministry had brought down a Laud Tax Bill, not to tax all land, but only the owners of land above a certain value. Although the Ministry had done this, he was sure one member of the Ministry would never support the exemption proposed. The very Premier himself had only last year said that all classes should pay their fair share of the taxation of the colony. It was the sacred right of every citizen ; and even if his share only amounted to 3d., he should bo allowed the privilege of paying it.” Nevertheless the Premier voted in favor of the exemptions. Mr. Wakefield pointed out that this was the first open attempt to create a taxing class that would themselves be exempt from the tax imposed, and said it was placing in tho hands of a majoiiby the temptation to tax the minority. Mr. Ballance, in reply, argued that this was also the case in England with the income tax. But the cases are not analogous, because a man’s income represents his real ability to bear taxation ; but under this Act he may have £IOOO a year, and if he owns £SOO worth of land ibesides, that laud will be exempt. Perishable improvements may justly be somewhat more lightly taxed than laud, as is done at present under the Rating Act ; but there can be no doubt that the only just principle of taxation is to tax every man according to his ability to bear taxation; this principle is abandoned in this Bill, Mr. Wakefield probably hit the right nail on the head when he said that this proposal was the outcome of the Attorney-General's well-known hatred of largo landowners as a class, but he hoped to be excused if he reminded the House that in Canterbury tho excessively large estates were due to Sir George Grey’s ten shilling an acre system introduced there years ago. In deprecating the Bill as an attempt to create class feelings Mr. Wakefield unquestionably had the full sympathy of the House when he denied the very existence of “classes” iu the colony. No lines of distinction, he said, existed here such as existed in tho old country, and he appealed to the members individually to bear him out. Even tho so-called science of political economy as expounded by the AttorneyGeneral was hardly dealt with ; as Mr. Wakefield said, there was no occasion to contradict any authority quoted because the authorities contradicted one another. In legislating for New Zealand ho would prefer to be guided by the practical wisdom of an old and experienced settler rathe.* than by a theorist like Mr. Stout. Mr. Whitaker’s proposals that both the land tax and the Laud Fund should be set aside to meet interest upon all loans and for tho executing of all public works, teems a proposition worthy of some consideration.

The state of police management throughout the colony is unsatisfactory. Complaints are heard on all sides as to the way in which the department is now conducted, and it is especially in Otago and Canterbury, where the best organised police force used to be seen, that the bulk of grievances exists. When the present Government came into office there was hardly one single thing which, from their point of view atleastjdidnotrequire remodelling. Everything was supposed to be adrift, confusion was said to reign everywhere in the world official, and the Premier and his colleagues would have an all-expectant community believe that reorganisation of all things sublunary would follow the initiation of the new rcyime. How far these golden dreams have been realised we need scarcely expatiate upon. The session of 1878 is coming to an end, and tho great bulk of the public—that portion, at least, not prejudiced by partisanship—js now fully aware hqw ’ Qmepumcnt Inf ye redeemed the pledges so lavishly madp during the reepss of improving legislation in this or that direction. Some men are singularly gifted by nature with powers of demolition, yet it is not often that they possess talent sufficient to reconstruct what, in a moment of zealous enterprise, they thought fib to tumble to pieces, as children destroy their toys in order to Had out what ia inside of them, This kind of iconoclaam often attains mischievous proportions in young politicians* minds, and if wo are fco believetheroports which reach us from every part of. tho colony about police affairs, wc can only say that these freaks are dangerous, Changes have been made, the outcome of which Uavodisguated old and experienced members of tho department to such a degree that one by one they began to drop off from the ranks, as bo much ripe fruit from a tigo on an autumnal evening. It is in Dunedin especially, we believe, that the blow to tho affioiemiy of one of the most Important departments of the public service was most felt. Wo do not hesitate to say that in Otago, in Canterbury, and iu Westland tho rank and file—particularly the latter—of the police force has so considerably suffered from the recent handling of tho departmental iibbona that tho officers in charge of those districts are absolutely losing heart ut the dilapidated condition of their respective official charger?. They find themselves

—through the theoristicuotions of the governing powers who manipulate every possible departmental string from head-quarters, let it be ever so’insignificantly small,I—in 1 —in the position of men trying tc> 'make bricks without straw. Each officer in charge of a district has, as a matter of record and reform, we presume, been invited to make suggestions as to what would tend to increase the efficiency of police supervision, with due regard to economy and to the preservation of peace and order. Bat their remonstrances appear to have been consigned to the traditional pigeon-hole from which labelled official corpses but seldom emerge unless brought forth from their repose by an order of the Legislature. The straw which may be said to have proved the one which broke the efficiency of the department was a recent order by which the rate of pay for sergeants and constables was suddenly reduced from Bs. 6d. to Bs.; and from 7». 6d.to 7s. per day while the salaries received by the officers were considerably raised. Under the new rule, besides, past services appear to no longer hold any claim, and as a natural contingency the police become more and more demoralised. A cheap article, we all know, is generally dear at any price, and the ranks of the police force from which of late have been weeded its best men, may now be recruited by what an Otago paper lately termed in a most irreverent manner, “ Whitmore’s vagrants.” It has been said by a great general that it took seven years to make a good soldier ; acd it certainly takes considerably more to make an efficient policeman. The requisites necessary to constitute a useful guardian of the peace are numerous and varied. Physically, mentally, and morally, to be at all a good officer, one must possess requirements such as are not easily found, and which require considerable training. The head of the Police Department thinks, apparently, that the pay of an untutored laborer is quite enough for a first-class constable, and his irartinet hobbies and uu-clemilifcarised notions prevent his seeing the fatal results of such an absurd idea. Another grave blander into which the Government has fallen in this question of police management is that relating to the control of the district. The control, as well as the administration, is perfectly centralised here. Each Superintendent, orOommiaeionsr as they are more generally known as, in each district, is now a mere recording or repeating machine. With all the experience which a study and control of police affairs has given them daring half a lifetime or more, they are mere puppets in the hands of the Colonial Secretary, whose time is said to be almost entirely taken up in dealing with the minutest details of management in each police district. The telegraph is continually at work; Superintendents and Inspectors can scarcely sneeze without express sanction being duly “memoed” from head-quarters. Every trivial breach of discipline must be “ memoed” to Wellington, explained at length, and instructions sent forth in all the paraphernalia of meddling officialism. Commissioners de factj find their original occupation gone, and they keenly feel the position of subordinate clerks in which they are placed. In the meantime public interests suffer, protection to persons and property is gradually becoming less perfect. We hope that the committee of the House' of Representatives appointed the other day will not confine Iheir attention to the question of pay, but will inquire into the whole of the police administration as it at present exists.