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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 162, 11 September 1866, Page 3

The increase of pauperism in Auckland is made the subject of a leading article iv the Daily Southern Cross, -which advocates the imposition of a poor rate to remedy the evil. Alexander Miller, wine and spirit dealer, of .Collins-street, Melbourne was charged at the Police Office with selling brandy, with brands fraudulently purporting to be Henuessy's ; he admitted the fact, and was fined 205., the agents not pressing for a heavy fine on this occasion. Mr. Van Delden, from Ssatavia, is to be invited to a dinner in Melbourne by the members of the Chamber of Commerce. Ploos Van Amstell, the Netherlands Consul, received his exequatur by last mail as Consul-G-eueral of the Netherlands for all the Australian colonies.

The imposition of a postage fee of one penny on newspapers has been^gain determined on by the General Government. The experiment, when tried before, was soon abandoned, we had hoped, for ever, but it would appear that increasing financial difficulties compel the adoption of any expedient calculated to raise money. Looking at the matter in a purely business point of view, a charge for postage on newspapers is not a tax but simply a payment for services performed. But we do not think this question should be judged on mere abstract principles. Education, for instance primarily conduces to the welfare of the individual, and only indirectly acts beneficially on society at lai'ge; yet its claims to State aid have ever been recognised — never more decidedly, perhaps, than in young and sparselypeopled colonies. Newspapers, it must be admitted, form a powerful auxiliary to education. The New Zealand Advertiser, speakingon the subject, says:' — The benefifrthe.revenue derives from such a tax would be nominal, while great public inconvenience would result from it. If we are to have further taxation let us have it in some tangible form — not in little dribblets of a few hundreds of pounds upon a class of people who are already contributing heavily to the revenue. Such a tax as that proposed .would materially interfere with the free circulation of newspapers throughout the colony, and the reading public would suffer. When the Postmaster-General asserts that the system he proposes obtains in almost every other country, he makes a statement which is not entirely in accordance withjfact. For instance in Victoria the rate is only imposed upon "papers posted for delivery" and papers directed to bekept "till called for are exempted from postage. Here, excepting in the case of letters, there is no delivery whatever, and in country districts. even letters, are not forwarded to their addresses. This ; makes a wonderful difference in the matter, and wo only say that if the Government of New Zealand" contemplate " delivery " they will very considerably diminish it. .PostmasterGeneral, like others of the human species, are not infallible. The Christian Index, an American paper, thus prefaces an obituary : — But a. week since, we recorded the death of one who was an old father in the Church, a careful. reader of the Index, and who paid for three papers in advance.