The Oamaru Mail TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 14 December 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1880.

We have received the following telegram from the Deputy Commissioner of the Property Tax Department for this district at Timaru :

" TniAßtr, December 13,

" In reply to leader of 11th, every person liable to taxation is or will be furnished this week with a list of his property and valuation. Please notify accordingly. "Thomas Howley, "Deputy Commissioner." We are more than ever convinced that the most prominent feature of the department is its blundering. The public announcements are nothing but vague sketches of the requirements and intentions of the department. It is well that the department has resolved, by and with the consent of tho Hon. the Colonial Treasurer, to acquaint thoso liable to the tax of the assi ssments which have been placed upon their properties. Such consideration we did not expect to emanate from such a quarter. But it is evident that, little by little, the proceedings in connection with the tax are being liberalised. There is room for hope that the department may yet condescend to insert intelligible notifications of their desires, the penalties accruing from their non-fulfilment, and what tax-payers are expected to do to escape the grave consequences of non-com-pliance. We venture to say that there ig scarcely a man in the district who has a clear idea of his position and duty in relation to the tax. There are many who are subjectto fears lest they may infringe one or more of the unexpressed—publicly, at all events—commands of the department. Instead of publishing a pamphlet at public expense, and charging a shilling for it, but keeping its publication almost a dead secret, they should have published a digest of the Act in every paper throughout the Colony. Had- it not been that the Press of the Colony has upder- ! taken to enlighten the taxpayers on their position in relation to the tax, unjust litigagation arising out of pardonable ignorance would have been rampant. As it is, the department will be compelled to relax the austerity of the position they have assumed. There will probably be numerous delinquents. who will be unconscious of their infringement of the law until the institution of legal proceedings to punish them. We have reason to' believe that pro-perty-owners are not aware of the fact that they are required—that is, by the strict letter of the Act—to Bend in statements of their property, whether such property, by reason of the 1500 exemption, is liable to taxation or not. But the Act does not partake of the nature of the laws of the Medes and Persians. In the days when these peoples flourished there were no Major Atkinsons. Such men were shrivelled out of existence in such a hot atmosphere. The tax :3 not yet collected; the department will experience some trouble in realising it, thanks to ;» blundering policy; and, when it is realised, it will not, m tfcipk, in amount

nearly come up to the Colonial Treasurer's estimate, notwithstanding that he has considerably modified it since he stated that he expected to realise 1470,000.