A NEW GEM PUZZLE.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 534, 17 June 1880, Page 2

A NEW GEM PUZZLE.

The Deputy Property Tax Commissioner is passing through" this district to to afford official information as to the mysteries of the Property Tax papers. Mr Crombie is too much a man of business to come here unless he knew there was urgent need for official enlightenment on a dark subject. We have met only one propertied man about Patea who professed to understand the perplexities of that tabular inquisition ; but he is an excusable exception, for being an expert official paid to spend days and nights in mastering the queer thing for the better discharge of his official duties.

he had to go through with it if it killed him. After being hard at work on those precious papers many days, he ventured to declare quite jauntily that he knew all about them. But if a settlor of average capacity has to sit down for six hours with a wet towel round his head, trying to fill up his '•paper,” ought he not to bo allowed a liberal discount for his time, and for “ wear and tear ?” Some honest settlers in this district have sat down with a religious resolution to understand those papers, and fill them up as per instructions, keeping one eye on the headnotes and another eye on the foot-notes ; and they have risen up, after much travail, their hands still clutching the remnant of their hair. It has been borne in upon their minds, after some loss of hair, that the Government intended these “ papers ” to be a cheop and amusing substitute for the famous and furious fifteen-gem puzzle. By the time we have all mastered the property paper puzzle, the Gove.mment will have made up their minds to supersede these complex forms with an entirely new set of papers, on a plan as plain as copybook headings; and all the puzzle papers already filled up will then be superseded as unprofitable labour. How carefully considerate these governments are !