The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 986, 17 October 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1878.

Equal and exaot justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or [political. Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

We publish elsewhere from tho Parliamentary Papers laid before the House, a return showing the proportion of the land fund, represented by the 20 per cent still locally distributed, which each county has received for the half-year ending the 30th of Jane last. Here we have m epitome the flagrant wrong which to the extent of millions the country has suffered for the last two and twenty years. The land fund has been colonialized, but there still remains this remnant of an unrighteous past. The principle has been admitted that the fund arising from the public estate of tho colony is the common property of the colony, but interested parties could only be brought to ackno .rledge this by the bribe, this sop thrown to Cerberus, of 20 per cent. We have still on a smaller scale the unequal division of the public funds shown by the table referred to. Dives, with its half-yearly revenue of £29,000, clothed m purple and fine linen, while Lazarus, with a miserable dole oi <£1 4s, is left starving m the cold. Under this operation we hare an annual sum of a quarter of a million sterling, which with increasing land sales caused by the extended public works policy of the Government may very possibly become swollen to double that amount during the next two or three yeais, distributed on no fixed principle of political economy, such as that of securing to the public at large the greatest amount of good; but disbursed upon the principle of giving the most to those districts which want it least and leaving those to starve whose necessities are the greatest. Of fifty-two coun : ties, ten receive a total sum of £113,485 for the half-year, or an average of £11,348, and these are just the comities that having expended all they possibly could from land fund revenue m public improvements, and that too without the necessity of falling back on local rating, have been, for want of legitimate source of expenditure, obliged to place large deposits to their credit m the banks. An attempt has been made m the Assembly during the present session to disturb the arrangement but unsuccessfully. The ©Id talk of " compact" was raised m its defence, as if it were possible that one session of a Parliament could bind the next session by any; Act it passed. The matter was one simply of financial arrange, ment, and as such could be again reconsidered on its merits for re-arrangement by any succeeding session of the same or other Parliament. As far as just legislation goes, the principle of colonialization admitted to be right m respect to the four-fifths of the land fund revenue applies equally to the remaining fifth. If the colony had a claim to the one it has the same claim to the other, and we cannot see how, m ordinary fairness and good, government, any portion v.f the land fund which is now paid into and forms part of the consolidated fund, and becomes mixed up with the customs duties and other contributions, can be taken out and disbursed on such a principle as that disclosed m the printed paper we republish elsewhere. Is this having a united Colony, when we have thus two purses ? Are the lands of the colony not the property of the colony, that they should be treated m the distribution of what they realise by sale, as it they belonged to the people of the immediate locality m which they Happen to besituated. Why make erne law for Ashburton, with its £58.000 a-year, and another law for Waipa, with its miserable yearly pittance of £56 — less than a thousandth part. Yet, when the war — a colonial concern — had to be dealt with, the land of Waipa was not treated as a local asset, but taken by the colony, and on behalf of the colony, as a means of maintaining European government m the colony. The truth is, the disbursement of this 20 per cent, is as mischievous as it is unjust. It is given to those who have— it is withheld from those who have not. The maintenance of this arrangement serves to keep quiet those interested members, whom, to deprive of this last crumb of nearly •a quarter of a century's spoliation, rnigllfc driye iuto bitter , opposition, and it leaves fco *' some more convenient season" the consideration of that great question of political economy which statesmen m New Zealand will be called to grapple with sooner or later, the providing properly and fully and satisfactorily for carrying oat real local government, without making the floor of the Assembly the yearly scene of a scramble for local grants. The truth is, thss 20 per cent might be placed at the disposal of the Colonial Treasurer without inconvenience to any part of the colony. The rich counties with their thousands at bank interest do not require it, while the poorer counties receive so small a proportion that it would matter little or nothing whether they got it at all. In any case, whether the castiijg of it into the

Colonial Treasury enabled the Go- | vornraent to remit ;i very lar^-e umount of Customs duties, or whether it were disbursed among the counties for local public works on some f.»ir and equitable basis, the gain would be theirs. In the one case they could afford to mere heavily tax themselves for local public works, m the other they would still contribute m many necessaries and comforts of life to the general revenue but would be spared from local taxation to a very lar^e extent. The work of the session is steadily progressing, but we slmll be much surprised, let the slaughter of the innocents be nerer so sauguiuary, if the prorogation take place so early as stated by the Premier, and auticapated by many, namely, Toes, day next. The Lund Tax Bill has been read a third time and passed m the Upper House, and the Electoral Bill was also m committee m the Council, which has reversed the amendment respecting the Maori vote passed m, the Assembly by a somewhat close division, and restored the clause to its original state, as it stood m the Bill when first brought m. This amendment was made m the Lords on the voices, not eren a division being called for. Whether the Lower House will send che Bill back for reconsideration it is hard to say, a course which might lead to considerable delay, if the Lords are obstinate, but the feeling m the Assembly was so strong upon the matter, that m all probability the clause will be left as amended by the Council, m which case the Ma»d vote would be restrict«d to the names of natives which appour on the ratepayer's roll of the district for which they claim.