The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1891. SMALL BIRDS’ NUISANCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2207, 28 May 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1891. SMALL BIRDS’ NUISANCE.

It baa been suggested to us that we should eall attention to the disastrous effect of the small birds’ nuisance in some of our districts, We are told that in the Elakahu district especially they are increasing and multiplying at a yery rapid rate, and that unless something is done to put down the pest they will eat the farmers there out of house and home. This is a question which was some years ago much agitated, but since the local bodies obtained* power to deal with it there has not been so much beard of it. The local bodies have no doubt done something to abate the nuisance, but we must say that they have not come up to expectations. That terrible dread of haying to pay taxation, to which the average ratepayer is an abject slave, has prevented the local bodies from doing as much as they ought to in the way of putting down the small birds’ nuisance, and the powers they received have consequently been only partially exercised. • The boards ought to work in concert to destroy the pest, but they do not. They argue that all ratepayers are not interested, and that consequently it would not be fair to compel persons who have no interest in the killing of small birds to pay rates for killing them, and so as to avoid perpetrating au injustice the method invariably adopted is to prepare poisoned wheat, and supply it at cost price to such ratepayers as like to buy it. This plan is frequently adopted, while other boards content themselves with paying school boys for robbing birds neats, and others do nothing at all. The results produced are not satisfactory. It is very little good for one road board for instance to kill all the birds within its territory if no action is taken in the adjoining districts. The birds will very soon migrate from one district to another, and all the work done in one district is thus neutralised by the inactivity of the other. In the same way one farmer lays down poisoned grain, and at the other side of the fence is a sheep-farmer, whom the small birds cannot trouble to any appreciable extent, and he takes no steps to. kill them. The result Is that after the one farmer has spent his money in poisoned grain it can do him no good, because the birds will flock to his farm from the adjoining land, where aotbing has been done to diminish their number. It is obvious, therefore, that the present system is practically useless to get rid of the pest. It is very little good for one road hoard to spend money on killing small birds while the adjoining districts do nothing, and in the same way the farmer who does all he can to get rid of them is only working in vain unless his neighbors co-operate with him. To get rid of small birds it is necessary that all districts shall cooperate, but it is not possible to get them to do it without an Act of Parliament empowering some authority to compel them to do so. There is nothing else for it; small birds will not be exterminated by the slipshod methods at present adopted, and the sooner this is recognised the better.

MINISTERIAL PROPOSALS. It is no use for anyone to speculate as to how the Colonial Treasurer is going to manage the finances of the colony until be lays his proposals before the country in his financial statement. He is, we are led to believe, determined to abolish the property tax and replace it by a tax on the unimproved value of the land and an income tax of sixpence in the £ on incomes of over £3OO a year. We have been taught that it was impossible to do this. We have been told thai no land and income tax could possibly be levied which would be sufficient to replace the property tax, but the present Treasurer is going to do more than this. He is going to reduce the postage on letters from two pence to one penny, and on newspapers forwarded to other countries from one penny to one half-penny. The loss to the revenue will be £40,000 a year, and this sum will have to be made up by taxation. In addition to this some extraordinary ■

expenditure will make larger demands than usual on the resources of the Colonial Treasurer. He will hare to pay bis contribution to the Australasian fleet and provide a larger amount for interest than hitherto, making in all oyer £IOO,OOO. Thus, between the £40,000 reduction made m postage stamps and this £IOO,OOO additional expenditure, the present treasurer will hare to provide£l4o,ooo more than his predecessor had, and if be does this, and changes the incidence of taxation in the direction indicated, he will hare done something which we hare been led te beliere was impossible. It is no use to speculate as to bow it will be done; we only hope he will succeed in doing it, because by these proposals industry will be reliered of taxation, whaterer other result will be produced. The reduction of postage will be a great boon to business people. They are the chief customers of the post-office, and the bulk ot the £40,000 will be eared te to them. The chief way in which industry will be benefited, howerer, is by the removal of the property tax. It is admitted on all sides that this tax has been crushing industry and keeping the colony back; and if the people are to be relieved of it we may expect an era of industrial activity. Amongst those who will be most benefited will be the small farmers. Hitherto they could not build a fence or erect a gate without having to pay increased taxation, and if they are now to be relieved of all this, and have only to pay taxes on the unimproved value of their land, the result must be satisfactory to them. As regards large estates, it appears to us that it is impossible to carry out these arrangements without greatly increasing taxation on them. It is more than probable that the longthreatened time has come when they will have to pay their fair share of taxation. They have not paid their fair share in the past—they have, as the Property-Tax Commissioner told them, defrauded their neighbors—but now it appears to ua that the hour has come when they must pay their fair share of taxation, if they are not compelled to pay more. It is, however, impossible to judge bow the Colonial Treasurer will adjust his finances, and consequently we await the delivery of the Financial Statement with unusual interest,