MR VOGEL AND THE GOLDFIELDS.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 691, 30 July 1870, Page 2

MR VOGEL AND THE GOLDFIELDS.

(From the Wellington Advertiser.) Ever since the day when he was, by one of those extraordinary flukes which sometimes happen to men like him, chosen bv the electors of the Otago C-oldfields, after he had been ignominiously rejected by the Waikouaiti constituency, Mr Vogel has consistently refused to recognise the interests of those who elected him. His constituents have been to him nothing more than a stepping-stone to place and power, and having made effectual use of them in this capacity he has taken no further notice of them. For the sake of affording a sweet morsel of protection to the agriculturists of Ofcago and Canterbury, he imposes a heavy tax upon all the articles of necessary use to the lars:e mining population ofthe colony. Because the farmers of Canterbury and Otago will persist in growing wheat at a loss, every honest, hard-working miner is to be compelled to pay an increased price for his bread. Because the aforesaid farmers will persist in producing badly-cured hams and bacon which will not sell, the miner living in some outlying wilderness in the ranges is to pay 25 per cent, more for his rasher. Because the agriculturists are unable to utilise their hay and straw, every packer on the goldfields is to pay half as much more for the keep of his horses. Because some few persons desire to manufacture blankets in the colony, the unfortunate digger is to pay five shillings more for his pair of blankets. Because our meat-preserv-ers and our fruit-growers have not sufficient enterprise or skill to produce potted meats or jams which people in the colony will eat, those whose sustenance consists largely of these articles are to be taxed in order to give an artificial stimulant to native industrv. And all these blessings are from the hands of—heaven save the mark ! —the honorable members for the goldfields. Surely the House will never consent to confirm the late iniquitous new tariff. Can anything be more utterly absurd, than whilst crying out at one moment for population, the Colony is to drive it out the next. The new tarift charges can have no other effect than to give a very serious blow to the mining industry of the colony. The miners were heavily enough taxed as it was, but this latest addition to their burdens will have the effect of driving them out of the country. Can the Colony afford to see any further prostration of its mining industry ? Can it afford to reduce the productiveness of its goldfields revenues ? And for what are these changes proposed? to bolster up one particular class which least of all others requires artificial stimulants. Protection to the corn-growers, when they already produce more than the local markets can absorb, and find it profitable even to export their crops! Protection to meat preservers when they can make it pay to send their articles to London, but who have never yet attempted to compete with the foreign production in the colonial markets !