The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2797, 13 July 1866, Page 3

The Daily Southern Cross.

t - LUCEO. NON TJRO. ' If I We booh •xtingohhad, yet there rU« A thoiiuad b«Monk from tht qmlrk 1 bor«."

FRIDAY, JULY, 18.

Fo& the last nine months our Southern fellow colb'nists have been puzzling themselves' over, a very knotty question, Which they have not ©yen- now managed, tp, decide .with all their effort. The experience of last session-left them in the p6l;i'fi6li~6f~Knowing~'that, however much economy ,'n^^j^t'feft .Practised for a time, it must very'soonviail to meet the re qjiirements qf the colony, without farther taxation of some kind. No one likes taxati6h,.'.£n.d the",' Souther^ provinces/of NW\ 'Zealand seem to like it even less than most, | people. * Eyjery member seems, to have gone home from Wellington to ruminate upon | this impending evil; find' to /speculate upon ■ some way of escape from it, safar^at 'least as i has' own district or province !was;conc'ernedf' jThe factthai?'nb'two ; of thede "£6ntlemen* i mi&K to'^ve'reaJßhed the 1 Wiri^'eoiiM!^

and that no one has reached one that can bo accepted as in the least a satisfactory solution of the difficulty, appears to us the most conclusive proof of the intricacy of the question. We have already referred to several of these schemes, as they came before us in various forms, and we have been obliged to dismiss them all as either futifo in themselves, or wholly impracticable under existing circumstances. The last of theso proposals which has come under our notice, has whatever claims to respect and attention may be 'derivable from the well-known, name of the Lyttelton Times, a paper of very superior ability, nnd nsually conducted with great moderation. Our Canterbury .contemporary is convinced that the times are critical, and that heavy burdens are likely to fall upon the nublic of the Southern Island, if something is not done at once to remote them to some other shoulders. Naturally there is a difficulty about finding any way of taxing the Northern Island directly, and yet leaving the South unburdened, if the expenditure is still greater than the income. The plan proposed can hardly be said to meet ' this immediate difficulty. Any tax that is imposed on the settlers"~atronce nrast'fall on the whole population of the colony, and it may naturally be inferred, from the arguments of the Lyttelton Twpes, that it would oppose any attempt to increase taxation now. Perhaps the most logical deduction from the arguments used would be, that all the remaining expenses of the war should be met by a fresh loan to the extent required, and this would allow full play to the new idea. That idea may be briefly explained. It is found impossible to charge the. debt for the war upon the European settlers in the Northern Island ; experience has shown that it cannot be charged upon the few acres of really good land confiscated, and not already swallowed- up by the -grants to the militia regiments, as' the disproportion ' between' the burden and th T e land expected to bear' it, would be quite too ridiculous. There is but one thing more, however, in the Northern Island, and the Times fixes upon this as the true thing for its purpose. ' The land of Europeans cannot be taxed to pay off the debt: the land .taken from the natives could not pay it (or its interest), if it were made liable for it : but then, there is the land of natives which' is 1 not confiscated, and is no.t yet sold. Now,' in such a, proposal as this there are two things ,to be considered — first, the justice of the proposal, and next, its good policy. When we say that' its justice comes first, we would be understood to mean that in the end no sound policy ever is evolved from injustice, and we presume the Lyttelton Times would agree]with this. - Looked at then from this point of view, w;e have the very 'gravest fault to find with the new proposal. In the first place, the tax is proposed to be raised in the Northern Island only. Why should this be ? There are at least as many' acres in the South not yet in private European hands as in the North. It may be answered, " Ye 3, but we want the fine to fall '• upon the property of the offending race." This is plausible no doubt, but to us it appears very shallow indeed. For in the first place,we Uo not see why the land of a loyal Maori should pay for the deeds 'of disloyal Maoris, any more than the lands of-a respectable settler should pay for the offences' of his next neighbour, who chances to be a rogue. But the Times says at once, it will enhance the value of a' Maori's land to make it pay 2s. 6d. an acre to the Crown as a condition of sale." The doctrine, is a peculiar one, particularly, in the case of lands that are worth, say, *2s. an "acre altogether in the market, as very much of native land is, and is likely to continue. - J But supposing this to be correct, who then pays for the Avar ? Clearly the people who either have settled, or yet may settle in the Northern Island of New Zealand!. ' Now we ' ask, on what grounds this is to be. Is it not enough that we have suffered the misfortunes of war ? Is it not enough that while our Southern fellow-colonists directed matters at their leisure, and in safety, from a distance, we fought the battles, of the colony, and suffered in our persons and goods the thousand-and L one evils of what amounted to a civil war ? Why, we ask, and we fear we ; shall have long to wait for a reasonable reply, are we to be made a vicarious sacrifice . of that the South may get off free ? Against the injustice of this we protest.and we cannot forget in doing so that it was our money that bought the Vast tracts of the Southern Island, which its inhabitants are now so anxious to keep free from all liability on account of what can even be tortured into something Jike our advantage. In qondemning the injustice, we believe that we also expose the impolicy of this proposal. But there are other arguments .that might ' be used to show this also to .minds incapable .of grasping the truth — political as well- as. moral — that injustice is foolish, as well as wicked. '* For instance, if there, -is one thing more self-evident than all., others connected with, the , .needs of .this," * island, it is that the vast tracts of Maori i waste land should pass into European hands • for cultivation as soon as possible/ 'We* should be inclined to call 'this 'the very A.B.C.' r of a wise policy for this island • and yet our Canterbury friends, who think themselves , ,so well able to manage our matters for us,1 would fain throw an impediment in the way of alienating Maori lands at all, which would certainly, retard this important' wort for many years. In the name- therefore, of justice, equally with common sense, we protest against this scheme. And we would trust, qn behalf of our Southern fellow colonists, that in future they would, keep up a-semblance of respect for the claims of .' gratitude, even if they neglect those 1 of ordinary justice and sound policy.