The Westport Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1970.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 692, 2 August 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1970.

The item of intelligence from "Wellington, published as an extra, yeslerday, is significant as showing that the anti-provincial party have succeeded iu defeating the Government on an important question. The majority is certainly a small one, but taking into consideration the representation of the Colony, and the number of members directly or indirectly deriving profit from the maintenance of Provincial institutions, it is a gratifying surprise that there has been a majority, however narrow, opposed to the extension of the provincial powers. The telegram received does not state whether, in the proposal to leave to the various Provinces the regulation of the export duty on gold, as also the fees derivable from the issue of the miner's right, the latter were to have the power to increase the duty and fee, or that their action would be limited to simply continuing the present rates. They would of course also have the power, to make some reduction—a power which would only be exercised under extreme pressure, or a reuistribution of seats rendering Provincial Councils in reality representativeinstitutions,thewell-nigh impossible contingency of their being impelled by a sense of justice. The Government would appear to have sought a double object in handing over to the Provinces the regulation of these two sources of revenue. The Provincial parly would be bound to them by an additional tie for having transferred to them the regulation of a very valuable source of revenue ; and, in placing it beyond the control of the House to introduce any alterations, the chief embarrassment in the way of initiating a protective tariff would have been removed. The undue proportion of taxation already borne by the mining population is so obvious, when regarded either from a Colonial or Provincial point of view, that one can readily appreciate the difficulty felt by the Treasurer in proposing any additional burden ; and he must receive credit for the ingenious contrivance, by which he at once sought to divest the Government of responsibility in respect to the gold duty, and to awaken an illusive hope in the mining population that an additional impost on articles of consumption would be counterbalanced by its partial or total remission. The subterfuge was, however, too transparent, and it must be a source of congratulation that tho goldfields have not been abandoned entirely to the tender mercy of the Provinces. Though dis-

proportionately represented both in Council and Assembly, the goldfields have more hope of redress from a Colonial than from a Provincial G-overnment. The latter, so far as Nelson or Canterbury are concerned, would appear to have regarded the goldfields only as a means of developing the resources of certain favored, and comparatively unimportant localities, without the slightest regard to the iuterest of those contributing the larger share of the revenue. By the aid of the large additional sums at their disposal, public works of very questionable utility have been executed with a view to fostering local interests, which could not have been contemplated in the ordinary circumstances of these Provinces. As a parting legacy, on her separation from Canterbury, Westland has an overland road, costing some £145,000, and of such questionable benefit that a doubt exists whether the sums, disbursed annually in repairs, receive an equivalent in the additional means of communication ; and Nelson in her Dock and proposed Railway Scheme, ihe preliminary expenses of which latter have been carefully debited to the goldfields, would appear desirous to emulate the policy of her neighbor. However patient and much enduring goldfields' inhabitants may be under ill-treatment, neither given to agitation nor clamorous demonstrations of dissatisfaction, it may be, nevertheless, questioned if they would have submitted with such forbearance but for the hope that, at an early date, the present provincial form of government would give place to a system calculated to advance th general interests of the Colony. It is not to the fact of an impost being levied upon gold that the miners mainly object, but that it should be sought tu impose further taxes which may be said to be directed specially at their class. Another ground of complaint is that, despite the exceptional prosperity enjoyed by the Colony since the introduction of the industry of gold mining on an extensive scale, the financial embarrassments of the country would appear to have increased rather than diminished. The man. ner, in which the revenue derived from gold export duty is diitributed, also gives much dissatisfaction. In place of the vast sum received annually under this head having been directed to beneficial purposes, it has been squandered in maintaining a costly and inefficient system of double government, and neither the miners themselves n< >r the Colo.y generally have derived any material benefit. When the fact is considered that the revenue annually derived by the provinces, in which goldfields are located, from gold duty and the miner's right, exceeds considerably £IOO,OOO exclusive of other goldfields' receipts, it cannot but awaken regret that a fund, capable of being turned to such excellent account, should have been so prodigally lavished. Out of the proposed loan, £IOO,OOO are now to be applied for the supplying of water tothe goldfields, while a million of direct revenue has been frittered away in a useless direction. How flourishing must have been the present condition of New Zealand, if this large revenue had been at the disposal of a strong central government, whose interest it would have been to develop the mineral resources of the colony, thereby fostering mining enterprise, and giving rise to a prosperity in which all classes of the community must have participated!