THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1981, 11 May 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1875.

Sir Geobcus Gbey's address to the Provincial Council will afford that body abundant material for reflection and debate. The Superintendent has evidently realised the position of the> Province, and he endeavours to place the matter before the Council so that it shall be seen in all its nakedness. We cannot "avoid the conviction that since his assumption of office Sir George Grrey has discovered that the condition of the Province is just a trifle,,worse than he anticipated. He- was fully prepared to find an «mpty Treasury and a rapidly diminishing proTincial revenue; but his speech indicates that he was unprepared for the full measure of impecuniosity he has found existing, or the embarrassments of debts created by the numerous special grants, from the Colonial Government which, enabled his predecessor in office to carry on the; work of provincial administration. Haying realised the true position of affairs, however, the Superintendent meets his Council with a full statement; nothing, apparently, is kept back, nor can we say that: any circumstance or fact is exaggerated. The finances of the Province, as explained by the Superintendent, do not exhibit anything at all encouraging. The

purely provincial revenue barely exceeds £15,000; the goldfields revenue £10,500; whilo the land revenue is put down at scarcely £2000. Out of the former sum

the provincial establishments have to be provided for, including salaries. The goldfields revenue cannot be diverted from its purpose ; and the land revenue is pledged to the General Government to the extent of one half for the next two years, and as a whole thereafter in repayment of advances. With such a prospect, many a man less sanguine than Sir *George Grey would be inclined to give up the fight. Wot so he, however. He will not attempt to remedy the existing state of things by asking for fresh advances, but will quietly and manfully require that justice be done to Auckland, bj having restored to it the financial right (secured by the Constifution Act) of spending ''the; main; part of our revenue." If Sir George Grey had been a little more explicit in this particular, his speech would have been more satisfactory. If he can show the Council how they can assist him in regaining the Constitutional right to spend the main part of the revenue, the .Council will support him gladly and cheerfully.'*-' The revenue referred to, as we understand Sir George, is the £309,086 of "general and provincial," or customs revenue, which is now absorbed by the Colonial Government for colonial purposes; and to show how this, or even a portion of it, can once more be controlled, by the Provincial Council will, we fear, tax Sir George's resources to the uttermost.

In further explaining the finances of the Province His Honor dwelt upon the advances from the General Government. The first itemis that of £40,000, a sum which was included in the Treasurer's estimate of revenue last session of the Council. To repay this sum the land revenue was pledged. Sir George complains that the General Government dole this sum out as if it were intended to be considered as a grant at so much per year. As we understood the Treasurer's explanations last year when dealing with this grant, it was to be paid in quarterly instalments of £6,000 each until the full vote had been ex? pended. If the terms are more^ favorable to the Province, the Superintendent has a right to demand that they be acted upon, and in doing so he will have every support from the Council. Nor "can we understand what objection the General Government can have to fulfil conscientiously the agreement entered into. The next grant is the loan of £50,000 to the Pumping Association, which His Honor declines to accept as a liability of the Province, but leaves it to the Council to express an opinion on the matter.

The explanation regarding the results obtained out of the vote of £250,000 to purchase a landed estate for the North Island exhibits a state of things eminently unsatisfactory. Of 123,936 acres given/to the Province His Honor says .that not more than ten thousand acres are of value •for agricultural purposes, the greater portion, even of that area being of second-class quality. /The intentions of the Legislature would appear to have been defeated in this direction; the results are simply farcical. Here again Sir George does not approve of the course adopted, and prefers to rest on " actual rights." But we cannot follow Sir George Grey through, his long address in detail, nor is it necessary, as a full summary was placed before our readers in yesterday issue.

.... Sir George Grey referred at length to the general politics of the colony, in the course of which he said a way could bo found by which taxation can be so altered as to relieve its burdea upon the industrial classes, while exacting more from the wealthy; which we take it means that Sir George c is in favor of anancbme and property tax. The Council are reminded that any representations by them on Mr Yogel's abolition proposals will receivej due consideration. We have already expressed an opinion as to the value of Provincial Council utterances on this question, and'we see no to alter that opinion. The Educational; system, the Superintendent states, has worked . satisfactorily. It has cost £21,000 during the year to work; when the Treasurer presents his financial statement' we shall see how much has been realised ;of the £21,000,; and how it is proposed to meet the deficiency which accrues year after year. Additional taxation wilt not be tolerated, but with a failing revenue from all sources, it cannot bo expected that; £8000 will be available every year from the provincial funds to make up for the deficit in the educational revenue. Sir George indicates, as we anticipated, that there will be little legislation to occupy the attention of the Council, and what there is will be in the direction of amending existing Acts. Supplies are asked for for six months, which it is calculated will carry the Province over the period during which the financial prospects will be rendered more clear by llic action likely to be taken in the Assembly. The Superintendent's address is no mere formal statement, to be laid on the table and met by a document formal and meaningless in reply, echoing the sentiments expressed in the address ; it is a thoughtful, earnest digest of the Superintendent's ideas on the. position of the Province, and will require earnest thought on the part of the Council to master its details before setting themselves to the task of remedying what are indicated as evils. Sir George Grey has essayed a difficult task, and it is quite plain that ho will not fail for lack of energy. He must have devoted much labor to mastering the details of the financial condition of the Province; in further messages to the Council he will probablyjsuggest the means by which

they can assist him in carrying out those remedial measures to relieve the Province from the difficulties indicated in the address.

It would appear that some of the miners at Ohinemuri are beginning to find out 1 that the Goldfielda Act is not exactly the one most suited to promote the prosperity of.thefie.ld. Having established a title to claims, they are now anxious to be relieved of the obligations which the Act of 1866 imposes, namely to work the claims continuously by one man for every man's ground held. It is now a question of bringing into operation the old leasing regulations or seeking protection. The latter would virtually shut up a portion of the field; the former would do pretty much the same, by opening a way for speculators to monopolise large areas on the chance of something good turning up. Before Ohinemuri was proclaimed a goldfield it was generally believed that some rich alluvial deposits would be discovered, and it was in deference to popular feeling that the Government brought the field under the operation cf the Goldfields Act of 1866, making it a ;separate field, in preference to constituting it a portion of "the Hauraki District, as was done in the case of Hikutaia arid Whangamata, and more recently in the Tairua extension. We can easily believe that many parties at Ohinemuri are beginning to feel the drain imposed upon them by continuous working of their ground with full strength, and that they will at the earliest possible period seek relief in protection, which means shutting up the workings for three months. If the Ohinemuri country had been prospected—which it has not, only two* months having elapsed since the opening—and' proved not to contain alluvial gold, the remedy for the grievance of those who cry out for the leasing regulations would be to revoke the proclamation under which the field has been opened and bring it under the operation of the Goldmining Districts Act, which will bo done sooner or later' we have no doubt. This Act has worked J pretty well in the Hauraki District, and if Ohinemuri is to be merely a reefing; country, there is no doubt its develop-' ment would be promoted by the application of the Districts Act machinery. \