The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, JULY. 10, 1890. POLITICAL NOTES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2070, 10 July 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, JULY. 10, 1890. POLITICAL NOTES.

Probably some of our readers may have forgotten the full history of the Primage Duty, about which there is so much noise now. la 1885 the fcitoutVogel Government proposed to increase the customs duties, but were not allowed to do so, and consequently they had not sufficient revenue to pay way. The result was, that when they met Parliament in 1887 they had a deficit of £92,000, and would have had a much larger deficit only for some good luck that threw some windfalls in their way. They again proposed to increase the customs duties, but were thrown out of office, A panic-Btricken Parliament met, with Sir Harry Atkinson as Premier, and they resolved not to increase taxation, but to make up the deficit by retrenchment. Mr Ballance, Sir Julius Vogel, and all the Liberals beneeched Sir Harry Atkinson to increase the customs duties at ©nee, so as to avoid a further deficit, butherefused, with the result that when he met Parliament next year, in 1888, he had a deficit of £528,000. He raised £400,000 of this on short-dated debentures, which is a fine way of saying he raised the money by means of promissory notes, and then be had £128,000 of a deficit still. In order to pay this sum he put on a duty of £1 on every £IOO worth of goods \ that came into the colony. People ought not to forget what he did. He increased the customs duties all round by from 10 to 25 per cent, then clapped 1 per cent, on top of this and J called it primage duty. This primage ' duty was to have expired this year, but he insists on putting it on again. He put on besides all this a tax of two 1 pence per pound on tea in order to i pay subsidies to local bodies, so that they might contribute to charitable aid. Altogether he increased taxation on the people by £331,000, and now he is asking for more taxation, and he wants to borrow more money. If Sir Julius Vogel had been allowed to carry out his policy in 1885, half this taxation wovld never have been heard of, and had Sir Harry Atkinson put on proper taxation in 1887 instead of allowing deficits to accumulate no primage duty would have been necessary.

The land policy of the Government is being exposed daily, outside and inside the House, and it is expected that disgraceful exposures will yet be made. Mr T. K. Macdonald, one of the largest auctioneers and land agents in Wellington, and a very able man, said, in speaking of the present Government in the Chamber of Commerce recently, that it was an " utter abortion," that dummyism was rampant, and that he could not see how any Government with & grain of common sense, could carry on in euch a w»y, Mr Macdonald is a gentleman who has been frequently asked to stand for Parliameafc but has always refused, so he is not a one Bided politican. Indeed one has only to fsok at the published returns to show how the thing ia being worked. In the report of the Property Tax Commissioner just to hand on page 12, it is shown that in 1886 there were only Q, companies in New Zealand owning mere than 150,000 acres of rural land, now there are seven companies owning more than 150,000 acres each. This is a hard nut to crack. How did these five extra companies start into existence in the last three years. By means of dummies. The names of the> .companies are as follows : Nime, Acres. Value

Bank of NZ ..239,800 1,05,5,277 N.Z. and A..L. Co.. Loan & xvlercantile... 'a*. Wellington - Mana- * <*sg watu Railway ... 179,329 247,v, Thames Valley U 0,... 176,008 97,726 Kauri Timber Co. ...165,436 157.402 N.Z. Agricultural Co. 151,137 240,977 Total ... 1,389,665 2,811,639

Let the reader take notice of the property tax value of these immense areas of land, and he will find that it is less than £2 Os 6d per acre. Now is it not a Bwindle, pure and simple, |to iet these companies off with paying property tax at the rate of £2 per acre, while unfortunate farmers have to pay at the rate of £lO to £2O per acre. This is the way farmers are being swindled. This valuation was made in 1888, when prices were high, and there was great demand for land. New valuation will probably bring them down to 10s per acre. The value of freehold land has decreased by £5,238,945 and the Commissioners says it all has taken place in the properties of " persons and companies." This report of the Commissioners contains a great deal more information, which we shall give by and by, but meantime, let it be remembered that the Bank of New Zealand only pays property tax at the rate of a little over £2 per acre, that is about 2d per acre.

The charges formulated by Mr Hutcheson in bis speech in Parliamedb last Wednesday week were as follows: —

" 1. That a member of the Ministry, being also Chairman of Directors of the Bank of New Zealand, was at the time of the projected but abortive two-million loan of 1887, under heavy obligation to the Bank, and that the

Ministry then so administered the consolidated fund as to assist the Bank to the prejudice of the taxpayers of the Colony. "2. That the two-million loan having, after fresh legislation, been floated in June, 1888, the proceeds have since been so dealt with as to leave uninvested unnecessarily large balances in the Bank of New Zealand to the further prejudice of the taxpayers of the colony. "3. That while disclosures as to the unsatisfactory position of the Bank of New Zealand were postponed during the period between October. 1888, and March. 1889, the Ministry made such represeetations through the AgentGeneral as they either knew to be unfounded or must have known they had no good ground for making. " 4. That the Colonial Treasurer by proceedings (unreported to the House) in the Public Accounts Committe of last session improperly claimed authority, against the previously expressed opinion of the House, to advance, and did, in fact, disburse public funds towards meeting the interest on the New Plymouth Harbor Board debentures due in London in November last.

"5. That such payment, made under the guise of protecting the two millious and a quarter conversion scheme of October last, was for the purpose and with the result of suggesting, through the Agent-General, that default would nol be made by the New Plymouth Harbor Board." Sir Harry Atkinson has written to Mr Hutcheson asking him whether it is true he said these things and Mr Hutcheson has replied that it is true, and shows a disposition to prove it.

It will be remembered that Sir Frederick "Whitaker was chairman of directors of the Bank of New Zealand in 1887, when he was also, as he is still, Attorney-General in the Atkinsan Ministry. It will also be remembered that in the discussioa on the £2,000,00 loan that year he said excitedly in the House: "We shall be bankrupt if we do not get this loan," and it was generally said tnen that he meant the Bank of New Zealand. It is also true that the bank narrowly escaped bankruptcy since that time, and that Mr Buckley told newspapers in London that two members of the Government were indebted to the bank in the amount of £70,000. It has also been alleged that the Govern-. ment borrowed the £2,000,000 in' ordei to help the bank. It is true that when the Government found it necessary to raise half a million of money in 1887, before the loan floated, they got it from another bank, at a high rate of interest, and deposited it to their credit with the Bank of New Zealand. It is further true that Mr Hutchisou visited England in 1888, and was probably behind the scenes. It is admittedly true that the money was given to the New Plymouth Harbor Board. Well-known facts, therefore, substantiate the charges made by Ivlr Hutchison, and when Mr Kerr challenged Mr Mitchelson to deny them in the House last week he sat down quietly and said nothing. Possibly Sir Harry may wriggle out of it, but the conntry will not be satisfied that there is no fire where there is so much smoke. j

Auckland is the most extraordinary place in .New Zealand. Itß representatives were once known as the Auckland rates 5 now they go under the cognomen of the "skinflints," or the " scavengers." These think the beginning and end of good government consists in retrenchment. They are certainly mad on that one point. But there is method in their madness. When Mr Ballance moved *n adverse resolution on the financial proposals o£ the Government the other day they voted against him, but next day they went to thePreraier'aresidencedemanding .further retrenchment, The Premie? told them a reduction of £50,000 could not be effected, but Sir John T ' -rfce, &s wet nurse, happened to Han, - t h e Premier at the be cloaetted wu.. <. t^Q ggfcjmates time, suggested that qtfafe should be redueed item by item.

I the Premier agreed to, but the " skinflints " would not hear of it. The result of this would be that salaries would have to be cut down, and if the " skinflints " had forced the Government to do that they were afraid the free and independent voters would not like it. The,funny part of this is that the Aucklanders want the subsidy for the &an Francisco Mail Service; so they want retrenchment everywhere except in Auckland. In Parliament last Tuesday Mr Mitchelson intimated that further retrenchment to the tune of £50,000 would be effected, and this was met by a howl of contempt from all parts of the House. The position which Ministers occupy is certainly humiliating. They have brought forward their estimates, and stated that further retrenchment was not possible. The Auckland members insist on further retrenchment, and under such circumstances the Government have in effect said with the yankee statesman, " Them's my sentiments, and if they don't suit they ken be altered." They are ready to do anything to retain office.

There cannot be the slightest doubt but that this raviDg about retrenchment will do a great deal of harm. The result of retrenchment in the railway service has been the calling into life the union of railway servants, who have extracted concessions which will cost the country £50,000 a year.

The union was called into existence through the efforts put forward to cut down expenditure by means of boy labor, and compulsory insurance, and, if wages are to be cut down in other departments the result will be that other servants will follow the example ot the railway employed and demand higher wages. Captain Russell, in his speech last Tuesday said that the cost of the police force in this col&ny was anly two shillings and ten pence per head of population, whereas it was as high as eight shillings per head in Queensland, while the lowest colony next to our own was four shillings and ten pence. This shows there is not much room for retrenchment, and if the G-overnment go on cutting down salaries all the civil servants will soon form a trades union, and like the railway employea compel compliance with their demands. There is always more harm done by fools than rogues.