THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1867 TOWN EDITION. GILT FARTHINGS—A SPURIOUS ARISTOCRACY.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 September 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1867 TOWN EDITION. GILT FARTHINGS—A SPURIOUS ARISTOCRACY.

The Englishman likes everything solid and substantial; he detests all gilding and tinsel; and hence he has a sort of instinctive repugnance to • shams. Whether it is owing to this feeling that the hon member for Christchurch has not made greater progress politically and professionally in,this colony, or whether he is incapable of taking root in any locality we cannot determine ; but this is certain that he was formerlv a resident of Nelson, then of Christchurch, and now he is feeling his way for an opening by which to practice his profession in the “ Empire City.” There is an indescribable something, like the ringing of a gilt farthing, which leads one intuitively to conclude that that man’s mind is not of the metal of which guineas are made. The conclusion may not be an accurate one, but as it was not arrived at by any process of reasoning, it cannot be removed by any such process. He may look like, but some how he does not seem to ring like the geninue article. In the debate on the Financial Policy Mr Travers made some remarks which, while they show his penchant for parvenues and the spurious, indicate, in unmistakeable language the reasons which influence the centralists in desiring- to abolish Provincial Institutions. Provincial Governments are tco popularly constituted to merit the approval of sham aristocrats. He said;— I am , distrustful of Provincial Governments as taxing bodies. The democratic element runs wild in some cases, and there is sometimes so much of partizanship evinced,-and so much of the evils of democracy exhibted, that I shall never be prepared to trust the Provincial Governments of the Colony with any unlimited control over the taxation in their various Provinces. While that element of democracy exists in what I cannot but consider its worst features, it would be unreasonable and improper for this House to allow the property of the Colony to become the sport of the demagogue, which it would become uu-

less some reasonable control were placed over the taxing power of the Provincial Councils. I have been long enough in this Colony to have heard it mooted by men unable, from want of intelligence, or of those qualities which are always said to be the distinguishing feature of true industry—l have heard it said by those men, when they thought that their neighbours, who' were more industrious, or who had more capital, were becoming a little richer than themselves—that the latter should he taxed for the benefit of those who would not maintain themselves by honest labour. Knowing that there exists that feeling of jealousy on the part of the improvident against the rich, and knowing the powers which exist under our present Provincial system of exciting the worst passions of democracy, I should bo very chary of allowing them to have unrestricted opportunity of imposing taxation on persons possessed of property in the Colony. '

No member—not the most rabid tory —of a popular constituency in England, would dare to make such a speech in the House of Commons, and yet a speech of this chai - acter is made in our House of Representative without provoking any rebuke, comment, or reply from either the Parliament or the press of the Colon;-,' When and where did this attorney ever hear it mooted by the men of small means that the men of capital should ho . taxed for the benefit of th ose who would not maintain themselves by honest labor, and how did they propose to achieve this object ? We do not believe the statement, and we challenge him to produce any proofs direct or indirect which will enable him to substantiate it. Gentlemen of the class and political creed to which Mr Travers belongs, measure working men’s corn with their own bushel. The rich have virtually, up to the present time, retained a-preponderating influence in the House of Representatives, and the result is, as was recently stated by the present Postmaster-general to Mr Travers constituents, that in England the owners of property were made to contribute in various ways to the Government of the country ; hut in New Zealand taxes had hitherto been levied on the consumers of the articles taxed, and property had not only not borne its fair share in the maintenance of the State, but had escaped taxation altogether. The industrious classes who form the great hulk of pur population, and constitute that democracy which Mr Travers denounces, are less selfish if less enlightened, Were it not so they would not as a rule elect as members of Road Boards, Provincial Councils, and the House of Representatives itself men of tbo class to which Mr Travers belongs. Wo could tolerate an English nobleman, or some other distinguished member of the higher classes at home, talking about the evils of democracy 5 but who are the men in this Colony who have a right to say a word on the subject. Is there any one of them who came to New Zealand for any other purpose hut to better his condition, or who would not if he had staved at home be justly considered by the aristocracy of England as a member of the democracy which tins lawyer sneers, at, libels, and denounces. We have now evidence of the truth of the assertion we made in a leader in May last that “ the centralists hatred of Provincial Governments arises from their jealousy of popular power. They are birds of passage, would be aristocrats, and official locusts who dread the influence which the popular will is capable of exercising through the Provincial Legislatures in the Government oftbe country.” If the centralists as a party deny the truth of the above they must repudiate the doctrines set forth by Mr Travers, and not only the doctrines but their exponent. We have no objection to an aristocracy of birth, rankj virtue, education or talent, but save us from an aristocracy of wealth, and from the domi - nation of such men as Mr Travers thinks ought to rule over us.