The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 1, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 714, 1 July 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 1, 1878.

As has already been announced, Parliament will reassemble on the 26th proximo, when the pulicv of Sir George Grey and his colleagues will be formally submitted to the representatives of the people. No one can pretend that they are in any donbt as to the nature of the measures which aw to be submitted, for at no previous pt.riod of our history has the head of a Government been at such pains to take the country into his confidence. Nor have the subordinate Ministers been less frank and outspoken. That those measures will be of a most thorough and uncompromising kind, we do not for an instant donbt. If ever men were in earnest, if ever the head of an administra- j tion was in earnest, if ever the people were in earnest, surely Sir George Grey and his colleagues, and those who so cordially support them, are so now. It is opportune therefore, we trust, as avowed supporters of the Government, to briefly indicate the direction which such | radical reforms as we anticipate will take. Banking first in importance will be the great question of the representation of the people, based on the sound principle that taxation and representation are corelated. We shall have a Bill to introduce manhood suffrage, pure and simple. Every man arrived at years of discretion —nnfaintetl with crm- -having resided for a period iu any electoral d'sfcriet, will be entitled to a vote in the election of the men who are to regulate tb'-r taxation of the country. The Executive iu till constitutionally governed communities are diree'ly responsible to Parliament, an-l cai.iKt legally disburse a single shilling without tha express sanction of the people's wpresentatives. The more effectual cluck however upon wasteful expenditure on the one hand, and unequal taxation on the other, will now, we trust, be effectually a- plied. Iu this article we are merely glancing at the more prominent features of the Ministerial programme, an-l we therefore refrain from entering iipontae consideration of those subsidiary i>Miiciples which at the prop. -e time we shall point out as underlying the question of representation, a3 well as the other planks of the Ministerial platform. In t e meantime we shall briefly point oi-t that as tiixxiiun is the i>iisis of representation, and property beiiii; equally tax- «l with [l'-rsons, the question .irists a=> u, whether or not property has thus .equal!. valid claims to bo represented u • putting tiie matter more plainly, pe.- ' aps--whether property, equally with persons, by virtu".* of rhe taxation levied upon property, is entitled to be represented ? If owners of property, in common with the non-pn>perued classes—the great proletaria—by virtue of their manhood, are entitled to a vote, may they not claim, on <quitabie 'grounds, that by virtue of their contribn:ions to the public revenue in trwir capiidj' of property holdsra, they should haw a correspondingly preponderating p"w r in the election of the men who are to levy and expend 3iich contributions I This is a view of the question which we hope will be careful-y considered in making sueh organic changes as have been indicated. We shajl have also the equally important question of taxation dealt with, we trust, in a trenchant and effectual manner, both as to its nature and incidence. Stripped of extraneous incongruities, the questions involved are apparently both simple and ceiupreheiiin its nature, should >namfestly be levied in such a manner as will coat the least expense in its collection, will be the least liable to evasion, and interfere t«%he least.extent with the ordinary operations of tfie people. The converse of this is too frequently the case, simply because our legislators are either too indolent or too ignorant'to study the question. Hence toljbars, irksome Customs arrangements, degrading and demoralising to a nature, and similar cjuwijy measures, in which the cost of collecting the revenue nearly equals ti»e revenue collected. Advancing intelligence should surely sweep away such obviously bunglin" methods. Then, as to the incidence of taxation, we trust this most important of all subject* will be maturely considered. In no constitutionally governed country with the statistics of which we have any acquaintance does such inequality and such transparent injustice obtain as in New Zealand and the Australian 1 Colonies. It is a popular error to supper that we Kivc left a country overburdened with 'I bt, to ca3t iii our lot inj those freer laiu's of the enjoy greater in.muuity troiii taxmntny. and be less unfairly handicapped in thoi great nice of life. In Great very small proportion of the revenniPW drawn from sources which touch the pockets of the proletariat classes 1 or indirectly. It is tiie propertied classes* who contribute by far the larger P r opd||j tion, and all modern legislation w tended to reduce the ihequality*an|Hl| • justice which were prolonged period, in which property wiekied unbridle.i the voice of the people, becaqgajWßfefej seuted, was altogethetv- ndHßjW|Sa> writers as STi-Ai.r Mill, or tiie proportion does not exceed 10 per cenflHiHEMB whole; and, strange startling of all political Daradftxos-'d|jSjjß|j and the neighboring Coloafco' {ho jft*|fp pay almost the whole!, )fecerija|Biyl||| in an inverted order, oar political "HTrcu^^MWWMfiJijfajr* this offers, history of this* peratively behove.thVmtelligent electpjea. to weigh weU'and worthily" the problem* being submitted for solution. Let U»

therefore be upon our guard, for, be assured of it, righteousness alone "exalteth a nation."