GOLD DUTY.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 841, 25 July 1871, Page 3

GOLD DUTY.

(To the Editor "of the Wes'tport Times and ■Charleston Argus.) Sib, —It appears from a recent number of the * Westport Times" that you are likely to be an advocate for the reduction (if not remission) of the gold duly. As the General Assembly is to meet next month, perhaps a little agitation on the subject referred to may have the effect of attaining that object. People are generally apathetic in matters that concern many besides themselves, but if each member of the mining community had a less grievauce to complain of that affected him alone, he would naturally exert himself to redress it.

I suppose in Your schoolboy days you have read the story of the lark and her young ones. A few years ago, when gold was more plentiful and more easily obtained than latterly, the gold duty (although rather high at the best of times) Was submitted to, I believe, without remonstrance ■; but now that times are less prosperous, we (I say we 'because I know the general 'feeling) require and desire to %e relieved of our burthen ■or have it materially lessened. I have no doubt there 'will Tjo ; a ■strong disinclination on the part-of the O-oveTuoaent, and also on the part Of the representatives of other interests to relinquish or lessen so productive : a source of revenue. If the duty were to be wholly withdrawn I dare say the difference of half a crown an ounce would have a perceptible effect in causing a good deal of poor ground to be worked that otherwise would not be, and perhaps be the means of preventing many miners from leaving New Zealand, and it seems to me it would be wiser to do so by granting a just concession at a small sacrifice, than to iutroduce immigrants at a much greater, and then as a rule the latter may not be as suitable as colonists. It seems to me that, if the Government cannot afford to remit the gold duty or reduce it,, at least, to one shilling per ounce, it is all the more blamable for indulging in the •extravagant expenditure of the Californian mail service; it is like shouting champagne when the resources of the country ought to reconcile it to small beer. 1 think that if the tariff was reduced to the amount that the mail costs ■annually, the country would derive much more benefit from it.

Our representative ought to be supported by the voice of his constituents in this matter, by doing so we encourage and morally support the •champion of our interests. I should have apologised before now for the length of this and I would have done bo if I had not heard so much about your good temper —which I hope will accord me the privilege of making one more remark, which is, that being only producers of gold and raising none of the necessaries of life which we consume; most of which are subjected to a high tariff, and from living mostly in remote places where the conveyance of stores costs, in several instances, as much or more than)the original value, we have more reason to complain than any other class of colonists, and therefore a full remission of the gold duty is not too much to -expect.—l am, sir, yours, &c, Mines. Christmas Terrace, July 22.