GOVERNMENT DECLINE TO WITHDRAW THE TARIFF. Christchurch, this afternoon.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 43, 29 March 1884, Page 6

GOVERNMENT DECLINE TO WITHDRAW THE TARIFF. Christchurch, this afternoon.

A meeting of Members of tho House of Representatives and others ro the railway tariff >yas Jheld this morning, when a telegram from tne Premier was read declining to postpone tho carrying of tho new tariff into force. Fourteen M.ll.R.'s Mere present, and all agreed to telegraph to Government tho following :—: — " This meeting protests against the new tariff, especially as regards the largely increased rates upon grain, because it lays a special burden upon the farmers, and is theieforo a class tax, while it is also in effect a tax levied only on the southern half of the colony, and chiefly upon Canterbury and Otago." The following resolutions were also agreed to with only one dissentient (Mr J. E. Brown) : — "That, in the opinion . of this meeting, any increase in railway rates which may bo found necessary or expedient should be so adjusted that the railways in the Middle Island which are earning higher rates of interest should not be called upon to make up for the lower rates earned by lines in the North Island ;" "That in tho opinion of thib meeting, no such large increase as has just been brought into operation, and which is leally of the nature of a tax, should bo given effect to without having been first referred to and approved by Parliament." Mr Holmes pointed out that the Treasury admitted that the higher rates wero to meet the deficiency in Customs, and they therefore were certainly a tax.