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Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1480, 7 November 1874, Page 2

The public meeting held last night was successful as an expression of repugnance to the principles of direct taxation as brought home to our citizens in the rate for education. The occasion was opportune for such demonstration inasmuch as the collectors are at the present moment knocking at our doors. It cannot be said indeed that the feeling manifested was so strong as on previous occasions, which may be accounted for by the fact that the principal resolution embodied a proposal the feasibility of which was doubtful, if not to all at least to almost all of those present. The appropriation of the £25,000, granted by the Colonial Government from surplus revenue, or of any part of it, to .purposes of education is simply an impossibility, as any one hearkening to the terms of the Act as read before the meeting must have felt, for it was surrounded by conditions that made it be devoted to public works, receiving the sanction of the Minister of Public "Works. Whether he would have been disposed to regard education, however admittedly important, as coming within the category of such works is doubtful. But there* is an important circumstance that appears to have been overlooked by Dr. Pollen in his telegram, it may be intentionally so, for a lerge portion of the £25,000 has necessarily already been applied to meet the expenditure on contracts entered into on the pledged faith of the Colonial Government, that the usual ten thousand pounds for roads and works north of Auckland, should be paid this year—a faith which has not been kept by the Colonial Government. And for these and certain other works amounting to almost the whole of the sum, the specified approval of the Minister of Works has already been

conveyed. The Colonial Secretary may or may not have been aware of this but it is true nevertheless. Had any feasible means been proposed for carrying on the schools of the province until the annual revenues are Ibeing again appropriated by the Provincial Council it would have been deserving of consideration, but we can fancy that the members of Council, especially those in country districts, would feel very little obliged by being brought together at an unseasonable time on a fool's, errand. We trust, however, that after last night's demonstration people will quietly settle down to the payment of a rate which is really necessitated for the present year by our peculiar circumstances. A very large number have already paid the rate, and common justice demands that others should not seek to shirk the burthen. That it is ntt unpleasant rate no one questions, and that the support of education should ba made to .press more equitably on rich and poor is equally beyond a doubfc, bub ib is in its main features the form of taxation that has been adopted in almost all the provinces, and Auckland cannot complain of being ungular. Next meeting of the Provincial Council will afford the opportunity for a re-adjusttnent of the burthen ; and such meetings as that of last nighfc conducted with equal temperance of langxiage and demeanour will do good service in directing public attention, and in bringing about some arrangement '.hat may commend itself better to popular feeling, and perhaps belter promote the great cause of the education of our children.