PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1880. RATING THE PLAINS.

Patea Mail, 4 November 1880, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1880. RATING THE PLAINS.

The Land Commissioner was asked at tho Hawera sale whether the Plains sections are to be chargeable with a rate of Is an acre for the Taranaki harbour construction. He said they are nominally subject to a rate up to Is, but he did not think it will over bo required. New settlors will sec that this shilling rate is a political question. If they don’t want this rating power to be held over them, they should see whether the member they return to Parliament is or is not willing to have tho rating power removed. Tho new settlers have the power to remove that rate if they rightly use the power. They will soon learn that the Taranaki rating power over the Plains is not likely to be removed so long as the member for the district is favorable to its being retained. They will learn that the member for the district is also their representative and spokesman in Parliament, and if he sjieaks as their member in favor of maintaining this Taranaki rate, they will be tying the bond tighter with their own bands. If he docs not speak either for or against the rating power, his silence in Parliament will be significant of assent, and his assent will be equivalent to the assent of his constituents on the Plains. This Taranaki rating question lies in a nutshell. The rate was imposed, not with the consent of those who will have to pay it, but imposed for and by a few people at New Plymouth who intended to benefit by taking in advance a power to tax the populations of the future. The residents of New Plymouth at that time controlled the old provincial district, and having absolute power in their hands they used it selfishly. The true and proper test to apply to that resolution is

tins; If the whole provincial district were consulted now, would the whole district confirm that prior resolution to appropriate 25 per cent, of the cash value of the land, and a further power to rate the land up to Is an acre every year ? Would the whole provincial district sanction that with its present knowledge? If not, why should the present payers of the rate, who had no voice in imposing it, be asked to confirm an improper)ate, levied in a manner which a short experience shows to be unfair? As to taking 25 per cent, of the cash value of the land for a harbor work which is being continued for an immoral purpose, that is a question affecting the whole colony ; and in our opinion the question cannot be regarded as settled until the whole colony reviews and confirms it in a regular and impartial manner. The immoral purpose for which that work is being continued is the spending of public money in New Plymouth for the temporary benefit which flows from local expenditure by feeding a few tradesmen nearest to the job. Any Taranaki politician who can be caught in a candid mood—a lucid interval—will cynically confess that the harbor work is an expedient for spending public money in the place, and if the harbor is never finished, it will only bo like some other public Avorks in the colony. When that harbor scheme Avas started, there was no good harbor in the district. Noay there are throe which will more than suffice for West Coast trade. Wait am is a fair harbor and easily improvable. Patea is a good harbor, accessible in all Avcather, and is improving every day. Wanganui is a good harbor, and important Avorks arc in progress for making it a deep harbor; Avhile the raihvay is gradually bringing any of these harbors into close contact Avith every settled part of the district. The harbor question is completely changed since the Provincial Council at Taranaki passed a “ harbor board endowment act ” in 1871.

WILL the PLAINS BE HATED ? As to tho Land Commissioner’s opinion that the rate of Is an acre per annum on the Waimate Plains is never likely to be required, wo regret to learn that this opinion, coming from tho Government agent, was generally regarded at tlie sale as a semi-official pledge. What is a semi-official pledge ? If the Land Commissioner’s opinion was not intended as an official pledge, it ought not to have been given, for it must have influenced prices at tho auction, and the Commissioner must have expected it would influence them favorably to the Government as scdlcrs of the land. It would have been better if he had refrained from using any such influence. If his “ opinion” was well founded, it was an official pledge that settlers on the Plains shall never be subjected to a rate for Taranaki expenditure. If it had no foundation, tho opinion ought not to have been expressed before the sale. The Commissioner was in the best position to express a proper and reliable opinion before the selling commenced, and it was a desirable and necessary thing to do, provided the Government will give effect to that opinion by repealing the rating power. Until they do take such action, we must regard that opinion as an unfortunate official mistake, made at the expense of those who bought land on the Plains. If this rating power is to remain, we invite thinking politicians to calculate results with the calm penetration of an actuary. This rating power, says the Ordinance, was “ to provide a contingent fund to pay interest and sinking fund on any moneys raised by way of mortgage for the purpose of constructing a harbor at New Plymouth.” Does any rational being believe that a harbor made in the open roadstead at New Plymouth can be completed so as to be remunerative for £285,000 ? The present estimate is not for a completed harbor properly sheltered, but is only for the beginning of a harbor, a short wall, leaving all the rest exposed to the full sweep of gales and swell of the sea. What would be

the value of an insurance premium on a vessel caught in such a “ harbor” during a gale? Slich -av“ harbor” could be used only as vessels use New Plymouth at present. The cost of lightering Avould be saved, but the risks of Aveathcr in an open roadstead Avould be same as at present. This so-called harbor Avould therefore bo a mere landing stage, and not a harbor in any sense. The Plains are to be taxed Is an acre per annum to make a landing stage at Noav Plymouth, and to pay interest bn the cost of it so long as it remains unremunerative. Will the ncAV settlers static doAvn to that ? The rest of the argument is evident. The cost, even at only £285,000, can never repay itself; and the interest on that dead capital sunk for all time in an unremunerative AVork, will have to be paid by this tax on the Waimate Plains.