The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, JULY 12, 1892.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3119, 12 July 1892, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, JULY 12, 1892.

Tub provisions of the Land Bill remove the objections to the measure of last session, which was shelved in consequenee of the clause giving the right of purchase inserted by the Council. The Ministry have very wisely bowed to public opinion, which has been clearly shown to be opposed to any measure which even remotely endorsed the land nationalisation creed of the Premier and a section of his supporters. That the Ministry have sacrificed their principles is for their own consideration and that of those who placed thorn in power on the strength of their hustings pledges in this direction. It matters little to the country that they hold opinions antagonistic to those entertained by the great majority of the electors, so long as they are willing to keep them in the background, and> like good boys, do as they are told by those lawfully placed in authority over them. They stand very much in the position of a set of school boys who have agreed to rebe.J, and have been most valiant of speech, but who, as has frequently been the case, on thfi alternatives of birch or expulsion presenting themselves in all their nakedness, have slunk rueekly to their seatfj and felt much smaller from that, time forth. It must be, with mingled feelings of thankfulness and: chagrin, that those members of the party who would abolish the Council contemplate the fnct that t'aat abused body has saved them from running counter to public opinion and singeing their political wings. When compienting on the budget speech of the Premier in last issue, we purposely avoided the clauses which intimated that it was contemplated reducing the amount of subsidies to public bodies and eventually stopping them alto-

gethnr. We did so in order to carefully consider the proposal. The result of oar consideration is that we are distinctly of opinion that no economy could be conceived calculated in an equal degree to retard the successful settlement of the country, which should be, and is professedly, the great aim of the Ministry and Parliament. The tendency is natural to Treasurers to shift from the consolidated fund to local bodies the burden of necessary undertakings. This is done on the plea that these bodies can administer local affairs better than is possible from the centre of Government. This reason is, of course, unanswerable, and has enabled Treasurer after Treasurer to practically relieve himself from the responsibility of providing funds and liability to unpopularity consequent on being compelled to resist unreasonable demands which are made without the slightest compunction by all sections of population when immediately interested. Borrowing powers have I»3en granted on the se-curity of revenue, and these have; been exercisGcl, not perhaps to a greater degree than was necessary, but certainly to a greater degree than was judicious. As regards

the apportionment of the . sum hitherto set aside for subsidising local bodies, there can be no question but that more than justice has bepn meted out to districts advanced in settlement and that new and sparsely populated districts have not been fairly treated. Their necessities are greater thun are those of districts which have been

.subsidised lor years, and in quenee are in a position to raise large sums l>y local taxation, .settlement having progressed and the taxable value of propercy increased. Many of them should now ue in a position to run alone after the care ful nursing they have-experienced, and ho prepared to see the funds available applied to necessary works within new and undeveloped districts. This is a degree of unselfishness which can hardly he expected, but it must not be overlooked that every fresh section of land occupied lightens the burden of taxation to all classes and increases the material prosperity of the colony in which all participate. We quite recognise the fact that unless we borrow or materially increase taxation it will be impossible for the Treasury to pay subsidies and at the same time provide such a sum as .£200,000 out of revenue, as Mr Ballance proposes, for the completion of railways and the carrying out of large colonial works which are beyond the grasp of local bodies with the limited funds at their disposal. We also recognise that as regards the railways it is anpeessity that they should be advanced to a stage where they may be expected to yield a fair return on expenditure, and render profitable settlement of blocks of land in their neighbourhood possible, but if this latter is to be brought about it is manifest that the local body within whose jurisdiction those lands are situated must be provided with funds, beyond the sum which it is possible to raise by local taxation, to prosecute works without which settlement would be impossible. A railway or main road is only a preliminary and there are many districts already partially settled which are little in advance of this stage. On the grounds we have stated we believe that the correct policy would be to advance the railways at a more moderate rate and devote the money saved to continuing the subsidies to the local bodies which most urgently require them, from the fact that, they have all this work before them. We are presuming that by manipulation of the revenue it, is impossible to provide, sufficient funds to prosecute the railways at the proposed rate and at the same time ' give assistance to the local bodies, which is of equal if not greater importance. There is not a local body in the colony which the withdrawal of the subsidy will not hamper and we wish that we could suggest some other means of making both ends meet beyond that which we have put forth.