The Bruce Herald. TOKOMAIRIRO, FEBRUARY 23, 1864.

Bruce Herald, Volume II, Issue 47, 2 March 1865, Page 3

The Bruce Herald. TOKOMAIRIRO, FEBRUARY 23, 1864.

lF»jj[i«^jovernment had wished to put a complete stop to the sale of land in the

Province, they could not have hit on a better way of doing so than by the famous Land Tax Proclamation. When that extraordinary document was first issued, we pointed out the dishonorable conduct of the Provincial Government in endeavoring' to increase the sales of land by makingpromises whioh they were powerless to fulfil. We then warned people against relying- on the guarantee of what was grandiloquently termed the Provincial Government of Otag-o, as that body had no power to fulfil its pledge without the consent of the Council, and we expressed an opinion that if tae Council even were to vote the money to repay the tax, the Appropriation Act would at once be disallowed b} r the General Government. Subsequent events have proved the truth of what we then stated. Last week a notice was issued by the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, in which, after reciting- the pledge of the Provincial Government to repay the tax, he says : — " And whereas such proclamation is in contravention of the provisions of the Ota»'o Waste Lands Act, 18G3 (No. 2) ; Ido hereby give notice that all purchasers of Rural Land in the Province of Otag-o, since the passing of the said Act, will be required to pay the tax imposed by, and will be subject to the provisions of the said Act, and that all Crown Grants issued to such purchasers will be made expressly | subject thereto." This notice, we believe, was drawn up and published in accordance with special instructions from the General Government, and we have reason to believe that the Provincial Government have received notice that any Appropriation Act containing a vote for repayment of land fax vill be disallowed by "the Governor. Will it be believed that in despite of all this the Superintendent and Executive have had the audacity to re publish, their proclamation. Quern Deus vult perdere priiis dementat. The absurdity ofimagining- that any one will buy hud on the faith of their promise, and in the face of the notice from the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands is so great, that we may well doubt the sanity of those who do so. The original proclamation was a foolish and disreputable act, sufficient to dissipate any confidence the country may have had in the Government. Their subsequent conduct lias made the matter worse. If, on finding that they had committed »n egregious mistake, and greatly exceeded their power, they had at once rescinded the proclamation, we might have pardoned the error, but we cannot pardon their persistance in what they knew to be an illegal course, and their subsequent attempt to brazen the matter out by republishing the proclamation, sida by side with MrCutten's notice. Such an attempt to defy the General Government is the height of folly. The Governor could not assent to an appropriation of revenue to evade an Act of the General Assembly, and to persist in pledging themselves to place an item for this purpose on the Appropriation Ordinance is to court a dead-lock. We are confident, however, that the conduct of the Government in this matter will not meet with the sympathy of the Council, which is to be called together at once. We are certain that the house will at once strongly censure the Government for what they have done, and deprive them of the power of inflicting further injury on the Province. The ' Times' hints that the General Government may remove the Superintendent. Surely the"* Times' cannot be so ignorant of the Cons;itution Act as not to know that this can only be done at the request of a majority of the Provincial Council. Mr Harris has, Aye imagine, too many personal supporters in the Council for such a motion to be carried, but if it w- ere carried and acted upon, wo very much doubt whether his re-election would be the matter of course which the ' Daily Times' states it would be. The country is becoming thoroughly dissatisfied "with the present administration of affairs, and longs for a .change. .The Land Tax Proclamation was the straw which broke the camel's back, but as good may arise from evil, there will be cause for thankfulness to be found even in that, if, as is not improbable, it leads to a dissolution, and a new election of both Superintendent and Council. That the present Executive will be allowed to remain in office, re cannot for a moment believe, but at the same time we confess that we do not know how another Ministry could well be formed from the ranks of the present Council. If a new cne cann.pt

be obtained, an appeal must be made to the coifl^fe Were it possible'Ve should like thi^ro be put off till after October next, when the new Electoral Roll will be in force, but anything almost is better than tl^ponti nuance in office of a Superintendent and Ministry who can play with the credit and honor of the Province in the way the present Ministry have done. Even with the present Roll a general election would, we af^^onvinced, witness the return of a very*different class of men to the majority of those who at present sit in the Council. The position in which the g-entlemen who sig-ned the Land Tax Proclamation are placed, is anything- but an enviable one. We are not quite sure whether they are not open to a criminal action for obtaining- rnonsy under false pretences, supposing- that any one bought land in consequence of their promise, as a Government, to pay the tax — a promise which they well knew they were powerless to perform". No rule of law, however, is clearer than that which holds a public officer personally liable for his acts where he knowing-ly exceeds his official powers. This is what Mr Harris and his responsible advisers have done, and we leave them to the pleasant consciousness that every purchaser of land since the 4th of January last may hold them personally liable for the repayment of the tax of 2s. per acre imposed by the Otag-o Waste Lands Act, 1803 (No. 2).