POLITICAL NOTES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2221, 30 June 1891, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

The Auckland City Council are evidently believers in the precept of “ Ask, and thou shalt receive.” They ere not at all bashful. They want the Government to put the Admiralty house in repair, so that the Admiral of the fleet may live in it. The cost is the paltry sum of £SOO, but the question is: Are the taxpayers of this colony to provide house accommodation for the Admiral, and at the same time contribute £12,000 a year for the maintenance of the fleet? It would be very nice for the people of Auckland to get the Admiral to live in their midst; he would spend a lot of money with them, no doubt, but then let them provide the £SOO. We have an interest in the matter, and we don’t want to contribute to such an expenditure. The Admiral’s salary ought to be good enough to enable him to provide house accommodation for himself.

The Bill to Reform the Legislative Council has passed its second reading. It provides that everyone appointed in future shall hold office for seven years, at the end of which time he will cease to he a member until again reappointed. This is the chief feature of the Bill, and as it has practically passed the Council it is more than likely that it will become law this session. That in itself is a great reform.

It is most remarkable that the Tory papers which have hitherto been shedding tears of grief over the disastrous effect of a land tax on small farmers, haye changed their tune lately. It is not the small, but the large farmer they are troubled about now. They do not seem glad at ail that £60,000 have been taken off the shoulders of small farmers and put on the large ones. The Christchurch Press is greatly troubled on this head,, It thinks the colony will gu to ruin through it. Now just let the farmers think what it all means. Under the property tax their cows, sheep, horses, and everything they possessed were taxed, but now this is all changed. They will not have to pay a tax on anything except on the value of their land. All improvements are to be taken off, and the land is to be valued as if it were all in tussocks. Under the property tax half the freehold property of New Zealand escaped with an average of twopence per acre, while many farmers were paying tea times that amount, and it is time the change was eflected.