The Wairarapa Daily WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 219, 23 July 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1879.

An Income Tax is looming in the distance, and our contemporary the Evening Post a short time back expressed sentiments thereon, which will probably be as popular as they are unjust, The first point on which the Post insisted was that a distinction under an Income Tax should be made between persons who derive their living from their personal exertions and those who subsist on the interest of capital. In other words that capital should be loaded! At a period when trade is paralysed by a deficiency of capital all over the colony a proposal to make it bear more than a more than a due share of the public burdens is simply suicidal. Taxing capital may be a popular cry, but when capital is diverted from New Zealand it is not the capitalist who has found a market elsewhere, but the small tradesmen and the working classes who will feel the pinch, Our contemporary too, contends for certain exceptions from the contemplated Tax, It recommends that all persons whose incomes are under £3OO a year should be free on the ground that clerks and professional men of small means-are comparatively speaking the poorest persons in the community. Another exemption suggested was a deduction from income of all amounts paid for life insurance. No doubt other exceptions remain to be brought ferward ! We cannot for a moment suppose that the list of them' will not comprise, premiers and working men, Ministers of religion, and Editors. But what may be expected to be the result, of ' all the exemptions which will doubtless be demanded and conceded ? Simply th'at'i those fortunate persons who do pay will have to provide double or treble the sum they otherwise would do if there were no such thing as an exemption, Probably a2dor 3d Income Tax without exemptions will equal a 6d Income Tax with exemptions. Which alternative is the fairer, must be toleiably obvious. NO one cares much for an Income Tax, but if we must for our sins pay one, by all means let us pay fairly all round, We believe that an Income Tax is a better device than a land tax, as under the former a man only pays on what he possesses, and not as in the latter on what he has only in many cases a reversionary interest. New Zealand for the variety and extent of its taxation,

will' soon become a fine place to live, out of Taxation requires now to be laid on very ligb.tly.aiid very judiciously A good deal may be.efficted by economy in administering .the Government of. the colony, more.the we fancy that by-in-itiating new taxes which are more useful as means of affording occasional employment to a small host of Government officials than to the revenue, On virtue of an Income Tax will undoubtedly be that every colonist paying it will begin to beieve to the fact that he is paying a high price for being governed and for his railwys and will take a little more interest in being ruled, not only well but economically,

Tenders, are invited ■ for clearing SO acres of light bush at Alfredton. Tenders for the Greyfcown Branch Railway close this day;;The Mastertoh-Borough School has reopened after the winter holidays. The Greytown, -Borough School ro-opens on Monday next,,....,,,., We learn from-the Standard that the ■navvies on the railway line have been paid and some of si'e racking spirits discharged from the works .., . It is reported thfit Mr Robert Elliott, formerly of. the Rising Sun Hotel, Greytown, is to be .the future landlord of McGuire's Hotol, Carterton. A meeting was held at Wellington, on Monday last, in ,tjie estate of J, 0. Golder, watchmakeiyMasterton. MrSellar, of the firm of Sellar and Hales, Masterton, was appointed trustee. The New Zealand Times reports that considering the. dull times, Mr Sidey's land sale at the Arcade yesterday was very successful. Fifty-three acres in Alfredton wore purchased by Mr Hughes at the rate of £2 4s per acre; the Taratahi land having been arranged for before the sale came on, The sections in Vogeltown were sold at £s' 5s each to Mr Jobberns. . We remind our readers of the general meeting of parishionors which will be held this evening 'in"S. Matthew's Sunday School, at 7.30 p.m., to receive report for last year, to consider the recommendation contained therein, viss, :—" That the Assistant Curate have the entire management of that part of the District beyond the limits of the proposed Parish, and that the other part of the District (comprised within" the limits of such proposed District) adopt the practical provisions of the Parish Act;" and to elect church officers.

The "Loafer" thus describes another " New way to pay old debts":—A wellknown Canterbury Licensed Victualler was recently recovering from a severe attack of gout, when a friend called in to see how he was getting on, and asked if he could do anything for him iii Dunedin, whither-he was proceeding that day, " Nothing tha? I know of," growled the gouty one, " unless you could pick up some tumblers that'll run out five to a bottle of beer. I've got my doctor's bill to-day, and I must do something to make it up." The Fiji Times of June 11th states : " News reaches us from Windward of a sad- accident which has resulted in the death of upwards of twenty people. It appears that a canoe left Loma Loma with twenty-five natives on board bound for Totoya. They were going about when a sudden squall sent the sail against the mast, capsizing the canoe. . The unfortunate passengers clung to the canoe, and might haye escaped with consequences no worse than • those which would have attended discomfort and exposure, but for the horrible fact that the accident occurred in a locality infested with sharks. These ravenous monsters seized their victims one by one, devouring 23 out of the 25 unfortunates whose lives were thus placed at their mercy. Of the two who escaped one is a woman ; but her situation is very' critical, the whole of the flesh having been taken off one leg."

On the day of the temporary stoppage of the Australian and European Bank (says the Australasain), a respectable mechanic heard the news in town, and remembered that he had a considerable amount in notes at his' house for he kept| no banking account. Leaving his work, he hurrid home to Emerald Hill, and found in his roll of notes 13 of £1 each issued by the suspended bank. -He turned oyer in his mind how he could promptly get them cashed on the Hill befor the news spread. He saw a way, but, unfortunately, he was a strict teetotaller, and had appeared on temperance platform. Thg necessity was, however, urgent, and he said to himself, '' Only this once." Tlie&sfc acquaintance he met he invited to take a glass of wine with him in the nearest public house. The offer was accepted and .he changed a note. This operation he repeated at various hotels. After the tenth visit he broke clown. He was by his latest friend conveyed home in a cab to his astonished family with his pockets bursting with silver, and still the possessor of three perfectly good £1 notes of the A, and E. Bank,

A gentleman addresses another gentleman, whom he doesn't know, at a party; '' This affair is awfully stupid—let's go out and take a drink" "I would like to do it," was the reply, "but I can't leave very well." "Whynotf "Why, you see, I am the one that is giying the party," Master (with aJhalf-emtpied box of havanas in his hand) to his valet;—" Alexis we must smokeless,"'