LEVYING POOR-RATES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2245, 28 May 1880, Page 2

LEVYING POOR-RATES.

The Government will, during the on* suing 'session, introduce a Bill to deal with charitable aid. This measure conrains a provision for the levying of poor-rates. The imposition of poorrates in a country whose whole history extends over only; forty years, a country possessed of immense natural resources, and an unsurpassable climate, seems to us absolutely extraordinary. It is easy to understand the necessity of levying poor rates in a densely-popu-latad country like England. But in New Zealand such a levy would bo an anachronism. If poor rates be necessary in this colony, then New Zealand is like those “old young” men of whom wo unfortunately see so many. Premature age is always a melancholy thing, but it is especially sad if it bo brought on by riotious living. Has New Zealand lived so fast, that in her early youth she is reduced to the condition of decrepit old age? We trow not. The question of how best to deal with charitable assistance is, of course, an exceedingly difficult one. The poor wo have always with us, oven in the youngest and most prosperous countries. But the Government must, if they desire to win popular favor, deal with the affair in some less disagreeable fashion, than by imposing poor rates on a people already groaning under the burden of taxation. — Post.