The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1657, 17 February 1883, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

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

SATURDAY, FEB. 17, 18S3.

CimisTCHURCii and Auckland entertain widely different opinions on the question of their liability to provide locally a portion of the money required for the maintenance of hospitals and continuance of charitable aid. The Colonial Secretary has recently communicated with both places, among others, pointing out that the grant made by Parliament was only intended to cover half the expenditure, and asking the local authorities to adopt some plan for raising locality funds to supplement the money voted by tho House. This the Auckland people have agreed to do. Not so Canterbury. At a public meeting recently held at Christchurch to discuss the matter, the proposal of Mr Dick was contemptuously rejected. We are not surprised at this ; the rather ought we to be astonished that the citizens of the northern capital accepted conditions which are, to say the least, unfavourable to themselves. The speakers at the Christchurch meeting very properly deprecated the substitution of private for public charity. Nothing bears so unequally on a community as a system of voluntarily aiding the poor and needly. The large-hearted pay not only their own share, but that also of the niggardly ones. We have seen this exemplified over and over again, and though we arc quite prepared to admit that societies organised and maintained by private benevolence have done, and are doing much good, we are compelled to admit that they are by no means efficient. But it is not on the ground of their inefficiency that we object to them ; it is because we think it unfair that any particular section of society should be called upon to do what is really a public "duty incumbent upon everybody. But our Canterbury friends can find no middle course. Having decided that private benevolence is wrong, they immediately arrive at the conclusion that the money should come out of the consolidated revenue of the colony, or rather out of the income derived from the tax on alcoholic drinks. Mr Montgomery, the member for Akaroa, who appears to have been one of the, leading lights at the meeting, is very clear upon this point. " At', the present time," he remarked in the course of his speech, "'the revenue of the country derived £530,000 a .year from alcoholic drinks. Think o£ more than half-a-million being paid for alcohol, and yet they were asked to find money for benevolence, and to support those who were in poverty, a great proportion of which, was^ caused by the drinking, habits of the people. Loss of husbands andill-health might be the cause of some poverty, but without going into a temperance lecture, taking the facts exactly as he found them, when he saw the sum contributed by the duty on alcoholic < drinks', ;ha said that out of that fund shouldibe provided the means for. -supporting ail the Charitable Ai^;':Why^h'ould that revenue be applied to anything else? Last year, ■ £B^ooo, had been Aid, 1 "of which sttta , £22,000 catuo, frbt^ endowments! tfnd JFoVthis, year, % the 'DegjUUwre'had roted £7P,6 100.l OO. It/] th&reta, did tabtappefcr' Whini-thW a% ; m6^ey , woiiiaw^uif^^.thi^« r y:ear at alir jOertainlyr, i or &* .futuw^ears;-heyw^^oJi|i: %V th |' Itf^ito!»^ /^^J-BJilUon^fpr;-alcohol jshbuld be^raw^W^p ßfprJ* ieoinihg. ;' oa^'/^^^^.^plß^b^Mae^i,

money should bdvyvaised by private^ donations or dir<|j| taxation." i t is caldtflatftl to dhiw ifttlr a burst* of appllusfe; fronrt|tceto&llers in^all' parts tof She colony, about rfs l hiuch v 4logic^ iri'^ i#. as we might expect to find in the utterances of Mrs Partiugton or Mrs Brown. ..Suppose, JEor stance, that Parliament yverg to abolish the; Customs duties; would there be any diminution in the number of those who indulge in alcoholic drinks? Is it not ex tremely probable .that the- removal fof the ''duty would result in a large increase in the consumption of spirits'? "" We are not likely to have an opportunity fox; determining this 'question, but we take leave to think .that the only, effect the „Customs duties exert upon drunkenness is a wholesome one. Of course we shall be told that the high price of liquor practically puts a premium on adulteration, but the extraordinarily cheap rate at. which the spurious article, can be produced, even when compared with ' the price of the genuine liquor without the duty, leaves scarcely any ground on which to build hopes of reform in that respect. Moreover, it must be remembored that the removal of the duty would tell in favour of the consumer no less than the dealer, so that adulteration would still continue to hold out its prospect of reward. Assuming that this source of revenue wero cut off, how would Mr Montgomery provido for those reduced to poverty through drink? We said that teetotallers would applaud the sentiments of the member for Akaroa, but has it never occurred to them that tho balance of this half million of money, over and above what it has taken to support those whose poverty is traceable to alcohol, has been applied to purposes bencfical alike to them, and the rest of the community. The subject i.° a painful one, and out of consideration for our Good Templar friends, we shall not pursue it further. We are not going to accuse Mr Montgomery of saying one thing and meaning another. It requires to stretch of generosity to believe he was sincere. His friends, who know him a great deal better than we do, say so, and that ought to carry conviction. Be that as it may, it sepms to us that the real object of those who conducted the meeting, men largely interested in city property, was to shirk the burden which the large towns of this colony ou&ht to bear. The country districts, poor and struggling many of them, have been pinched and robbed to support institutions from which the benefits derived are at the best but shadowy, and seldom discernible at all. What, -we would ask, have the Government to show us here in return for the enormous deductions from our local revenue made periodically on account of Hospitals and Charitable Aid? It is only on rare occasions that a patient goes from this district to the hospital, and when one does he or she is generally able to pay for services rendered. Ihe charitable aid, too, doled out now and then is not worth mentioning. We are thankful it is so, but that is no sufficient reason why we should pay so smartly for what we do not get. This wholesale diversion of the consolidated revenue to the purpose of supporting urban institutions simply means robbing the country districts. The profits of the liquor traffic are almost entirely absorbed by the merchants and publicans in the large centres of population, into whose, pockets the wages of the improvident countryman filter by the most natural process. Not satisfied with this they want the duty also, the duty which is the tax paid by every consumer, and as such colonial revenue in the strictest sense of the term. Wo object to the appropriation of the general revenue of the colony for the support of Ilospitals and for Charitable Aid, (except in the way of subsidy) chiefly on the grounds vStated above, but there are other and cogent reasons why such appropriations should not be made.' In the first place, the practice would perpetuate a state of things which has already had a demoralising effect upon the people of this colony. They have become so accustomed to look to the Government for everything, from a railway down to a wooden road-culvert, that they have ceased to be self-re-liant ; they have degenerated into mere dependents, a species of tuft hunter. Secondly, this habit of receiving general revenue for the carrying oil of local operations 'weakens the sense of responsibility which should actuate public men ,in every capacity. 1 The'dbligatio'n to find the money directly being removed, a conception of its" true value is almost impossible. The, axiom, " light come, light go," applies to such a case with singular force. The funds necessary to support our hospitals and charitable institutions should be raised locally, mainly, each county or borough con;tributing"its fair proportion of the ,cost out ; of,its ordinary income,, the amount of these, contributions being regulated by the extent to which the contributing districts have respectively benefited, according to a properly adjusted scale. This we believe' to be/the only fair and equitable method, the only way by whiclhifr this colony, the country districts can, be .p^o^ed, i rom the; growin^uence^liefowns.^,

' ! It'i^ rufaoured that, Sir! Arthur iGdMott'MiU'be^ap'pbintedUGovemor ot, Ceylon. -^ ■ v°^> fo^'i'^l 1 , Oonuhander Edwin .telegraphed to the postmaster, Hamilton, at 3.38 .plra. yestertlay^;— Expect bad- weather betwjeen RpE^iMidvE. and/ S.(is Glaas' t furth^ fall^but iisji9g'atter^2jhotirs, indication jrainj , 4 /The eontta^rs have lieenmaking WSSa pi^^^€W#^O»febri;dge jalifibst. c^mp^leted^|-^^largeviiutnßer4ipfi