CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 4, 5 June 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE MORTGAGE TAX, The plain truth is that the abolition of the mortgage tax was never more than a plausible electioneering cry which no politician with his senses about him ever had any intention of carrying into effect. To begin with, no one has yet put forward any sane reason why land which is mortgaged should be exempt from taxation any more than land which is unmortgaged. They both paid the old property tax which for years was the foundation of unreformed Conservative finance. Then .the abolition of the tax would mean an immediate loss of revenue amounting to at least £200,000 a year and a prospective loss of all the revenue derived from the land. Farmers would have only to exchange cheques and register mortgages to free themselves from taxation altogether. Of course, Mr. Massey realised the fallacy of all his former contentions when he amended the Land and Income Assessment Act last session without parting with a penny of revenue— Lyttelton Times.

THE SIGNED ARTICLE. The signed article is undergoing strange developments in the course of the Federal election contest. A ten-line paragraph commenting upon a remark made by 'Mr. Wade is published in the Sydney Bulletin, with this explanatory inscription, ostensibly intended to satisfy the requirements of the Federal law:— "Written off his own bat, so to speak, and in green ink, by John Barr, the Bulletin office, Sydney—all except the lastj word or two, the writer being called away to consult with the financial editor. Finished in red ink by -Ernest O'Farrall (same address), because W. H. East, chief of the composing department, wanted copy, and was growing excited. Passed without alteration by John Bede Dalley (same old address), and sent upstairs to pacify W. H. East aforesaid, by the hands of Edward Dickenson, the military cadet, the lift being out of order." Another Sydney newspaper has clipped the paragraph from the Bulletin and published it with an additional endorsement:—"Extracted from the Bulletin by Charles E. Taylor. 32 Castlerengh street, Sydney, with scissors borrowed from the dusk of Adam .McCav, 32 Castlereagh street. Sydney. X.B.—The scissors belonged to Montague <!rover, 32 Castlereagh street. Sydney, who is alleged to have stolen them from (!. Mcb. I'edmond.' 32 Castlereagh slice!. Svdnev." The responsibility of publication seems to have been distributed fairly widely.

Till? U'XIIKUTIVF. COCNCTL. Tlio El I list in Argus glvp* ('.lie following illustration of (lie watchfulness of the Lefjislntivc Council:—"ln the session of mfl, there was a T.ill introduced entitled I lie '(inai'diiin, Trust »nd Executors Company Ainendmcnl Mill.' which w;\s vend si second time in !'ne Lower ITonse without the slightest ;it I'enfiou bein'J p;iid to it. beyond tin l . exciM.'di ni>'lv brief speech (a dozen lines in lL'.n.=:ird) made

l>y the gentleman who introduced it. The Bill eventually readied the 1/figiHlativo Council and went before the Private Bills Committee, In that ei/imnlttee. all jfrb/iotlMl is submitted to a very close examination Indeed, and the investigation made by the Committee resulted in an absolutely new Hill belli# framed, As it passed the Popular Chamber it invested the propped eoinpany with extraordinary power*, and virtually absolved it from legal restrictions which had been devised many year* previously for the protection of the people. The Hon. Mr. Samuel was the first to detect the far-reaching character of the proposed measure, and it was mainly owing to his efforts that the Bill was checked and put into proper shape. There was a wretched Ministerial measure dealing jvith coal mines that was carried through the House of Representatives in the dying hours of the 1911 session. As it involved a Labor question, and as the elections were close at hand, the House 'was discreetly silent. But the Legislative Council, in spite of the unpopularity of the procedure, "faced the music" and rejected the Bill. Had the Council been an elective body they would probably have been on the look-out for votes and followed the discreet, though pusillanimous, lead of the House of Representatives. And yet, in the face of cases <like these, we have politicians who favor two party Houses. Mr. Massey will probably achieve his desire of creating a second Chamber where the party bickerings and intrigues of the House of Representatives will be duplicated, but he will not, by so doing, confer any advantage upon the Dominion."

MR. KING O'MALLEY. With more eagerness than discretion some of the Australian newspaper* made use of reports that the Minister of Home Affairs (Mr. King O'Malley) had in Tasmania, for which State he is one of the members in the House of Representatives, taken it upon himself to order the removal of several persons appointed to act as officials in connection with the Federal elections, because he considered them to be unduly partial towards Liberal candidates, including the Liberal who is opposing the Minister. You can imagine what Liberal organs would be likely to say in the way of comment on I such a proceeding, or, for the matter of that, what would be said bv partisans on any side to which removed electoral officials were supposed or alleged to lean. In reply, Mr. O'Malley says that on entering the schoolhouse in which he was about to address the electors he found chalked on the blackboard in neat, elear writing: "Don't vote for o'Mallev," He learned, further, that at the last elections the schoolmaster had distributed Liberal election literature, and acted as a Liberal scrutineer, which things were in ' defiance of the regulations of the Education Department, Yet this was one of the men appointed to take the poll on May 31. Since then he had learned 1 that this same gentleman had travelled 32 milas to attend a Liberal meeting at which it was resolved to make a house-to-house canvass in order to ensure Mr. O'Malley's defeat. The Minister adds: "Who says that this man is not a partisan, and that if I have recommended his removal T have committed a crime, either towards him or Australia?'' Mr. O'Malley states that in connection with the criticism of his action he has issued writs against two papers claiming £SOOO as damages.

ACCIDENT INSURANCE.

An important question that will be discussed by delegates from local bodies tit the County Councils' Conference, to l)o held shortly, is the question of accident insurance, which, at the present time, is a very heavy item of expenditure in tlio case of many counties and road boards. In a letter recently received by the secretary of the Taranaki Council, Mr. H. D. Atkinson (secretary of the N.Z.C.A.) writes that it has been suggested that their interests would lie better served if they were empowered by legislation to establish a fund or funds, cither individually, if financially strong enough, or in such associations or groups as might be agreed upon amongst themselves, for the purpose of insuring their employees against accident. The writer pointed out that before the Association could proceed further in the matter it was necessary that It should be in possession of data sufficient to warrant further procedure, and it bad been suggested that if all the local authorities would fill in a form showing the total premiums paid each year for insurance against accident in respect of works carried out under contract, and works carried out under dav labor for the past ten years, and also the total amounts of claims paid each year to the local authority, or employee or employee's relatives, as compensation for accident or death during the same period, it was considered that this information over such period of time might be sufficient "to warrant further steps being taken.