THE WALLACE ELECTION.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 239, 9 April 1866, Page 3

THE WALLACE ELECTION.

The last of the Southland elections for the .General Assembly took place on [Friday, ai the house of Messrs. Holmes and Barnhill, run No. 181. Only four electors were present. The Eeturning Office (C. E. Marten, Esq.,) having bijefly opened the proceedings, Mr. Cuthbert CowAJf, M.P.C., proposed, and Mr. M'Kellar seconded, Mr. Alexander M'Neil as a fif and proper person to represent the district of Wallace in the House of Eepresentatives. No other candidate being proposed, the Eeturning Oflicer declared Mr. M'Neil duly elected. Mr. M'Neu. thanked the electors for placing him in a position any man might be proud to fill. He would have preferred their electing a man of more experience in politics, for as he had taken no part in them hitherto, he was unable at present to form any opinion, even on such a point as Separation. He must hear both sides before he could decide which would be best for the interests of the colony. He. had declined the first requisition presented to him- — it waa only on being strongly urged by private friends that he consented at length to stand. However, the electors might rely on his. doing his best, and he again thanked them for the compliment they had paid him. Mj* Cowa2-t -then proposed, and Mr M'Neil seconded a vote of thanks to the Eeturning Officer, and the proceedings terminated.

ENGLANDS QUARTERLY REVENUE. \ The London Observer thus sums up the principal features of the revenue acwunts just issued :•— * "Going first through the items; we find that in the Customs there is a decrease of £262,000 on the quarter, and of £828,000 in the year. These are most important amounts of decrease when we recollect the large reductions in the tea duties which have been in force for the nine month just ended. The Excise shows an increase of £110,000 on the quarter, and of £306,000 on the year. This is all the more satisfactory when we consider that the previous year was a most productive one, on account of the ' excellent harvest, of which arepitition was was not to be expected, and that a small reduction was made in 'the malt dutieß in relation to cattle food, and some excise regulations. The stamps show the ordinary increase of £150,000 on the quarter, and £168,000 on the year. This is in spite of the reduction ot onehalf of the fire insurance, which loss, however, is more than counterbalanced by the activity of commerce, and the progressive increase of the legacy and succession duties, which gradually and regularly justify Mr Gladstone's expectations. The taxes show an increase of £23,000 on the quarter, and of £103,000 on the year, proving, the constant addition to the inhabited houses, which form so large a part of this item of taxation. The property- tax shows a decrease ofj

£129,000 on the quarter, and of £396,000 on the year — a very small reduction when we bear in mind that the reduction of 2nd. in the pound — from 6d. to 4d. — has been in force the whole of the quarter, and the greater part of the year. The Post-offlce shows the now coustantly recurring increase' in the Post-office receipts, being for the quarter £40,000, and for the year £190,000. The Crown lands are £2000 better on the quarter, and £6500 better on the year. The Miscellaneous show a decrease of £3819 on the quarter, and of no less than £477,396 on the year. This item is always inevitable, but the large deficit on the year is the more unaccountable because of the sale of ships and other old stores this year. In the total the net decrease, after deducting the increase, is on the quarter £62,181; and on the year £928,896. "We now come to the total and to the comparison of Mr Gladstone's calculations with the actual results. The entire revenue of the preceding year (1864) was £70,127,374.. Mr Gladstone calculated his remission of taxation in the matters of tea, insurances, and in income-tax at £s,2oo,ooo— taxes to be given up ; but until thai;, the increase on other things would reduce the loss to the ] revenue of £3,800,000. It turns out that the actual loss on the nine months is only about £100,000,000, and at the end of the financial year, on the 31st March next, it will probably not exceed £2,000,000, when the whole year's loss of

income-tax will be felt. Mr Gladstone set down the income of this year at £67^000,000, in the place bf over £70*000,000 in the year before. He took off £5,000,000 of. taxes, and counted on a recovery of a million and a quarter. In place of this, the whole loss; is only a million now, and will probably not. exceed two. millions at the. end !of the financial year. This marvellous, recovery is to he attributed — first, to the general buoyancy of the resources of the country ; secondly, to the increase in the consumption . of tea, which has been no less than ten millions of pounds in the last ten months. This large increase in the consumption of tea shows, amongst other things, how much the comforts of the poor must have been increased by the reduction of the duty : to a shilling on the pound of tea, and how many privations w;ere imposed by the previous high duties, which are all but swept away by the beneficial influence of modern legislation. Thirdly, the incometax^ rigid as it is, shows that it forms no exception to the elasticity of reductions in taxation. Each penny in the pound used to yield about a million a year Calculating the income at £67,000,000, Mr Gladstone estimated the expenditure at some £300,000 less. The expenditure will be found to have been still, less than the calculation, and the income two millions more. So that, according to all appearances, Mr Gladstone will be able to give in the next year a reduction of taxation quite equal to

the last. This is a prospect to strike the Opposition not only with envy but with dismay.