The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3759, 2 August 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1883.

In proposing- that the Government should bo requested to contribute towards the erection of a rabbit proof fence at Waimata, the southern boundary of this district, Mr Onnond, at the meeting of settlers at Waipawa recently, said the sheep rate collected in this province far cxoecdcdthc cost of inspection. The Government, in fact, have been making- a clear profit of about £1000 a year out of the pockets of the sheepfarm'ers, for which no compensatory return whatever is made. When Mr Ormond spoke at Waipawa the annual return of the sheep rate, ivc, had not been laid before rarliament ; but, judging from previous years, it was safe to assert that the settlers had a just claim upon the Government from the excess of sheep rate over inspection expenses for a long series of years. It will be remembered that, in accordance with Mr Ormond's resolution, an application was made to the Government for assistance in the matter of the erection of the boundary rabbit fence, and that that assistance was refused. It appears that the total amount collected in the several districts in sheep rates is put into a common fund, so that those districts from which the profits are made have to support those where losses are incurred. Hence the Government cannot recognise any claim arising out of a sheep rate., and by a beautiful provision of departmental administration the expenses are. rarely more than balanced by the revenue. A reference to the return will show how this is tlio case in the matter of the Superintendent-Inspector's Department : — District Rate Expense? £ £ Auckland .. 762 .. 1425 Hawkc's Bay .. 2200 .. 990 Wellington .. 1670 .. 1975 Taranaki .. 20 .. 260 Nelson .. .. 262 .. 60S Marlborough .. Hi') .. 1225 Canterbury .. 3767 .. 1700 Wcstland .. 3 .. 300 Otago .. .. 37-1G .. 2100 —The Superintendent-Inspector for the whole colony—what ho is wanted for no one but a "Contralistic Government can imagine—-receives £400 a year, and contingencies come up to £1060. The total approximate cost of sheep inspection amounts to £12,113, and the sheep rate collected to £13,575- Thus there is but a paltry sum of £1402 to " come and go upon,"'in the event, say, of another inspector being-required at Taranaki or Westland, where there do not h.-ippen to be any sheep worth mentioning. But it is just where there are no sheep that inspection is very necessary in the eyes of a "department," and Taranaki would be up in arms if there wero no idle men in the employ of the State. The profits of £2067 from Canterbury, and of £1210 from Hawkc's Bay, go to cover losses in such places as that. A more legitimate claim could not have been urged than that which was made by the sheep farmers of this district when they modestly asked for assistance to fight the rabbit pest. They did not want the Government to pay the whole of the expense, as Taranaki would have demanded ; they merely wanted a subsidy on a voluntary rate for an extraordinary outlay. It certainly seems hard and mi just 'that, though the sheepfarmers here have for many years been taxed to im unnecessary extent for the inspection of their own flocks, they should be refused the slightest aid in thei r extremity. This is only onoof many cvi h arising from Centralism, and is the natural outcome of departmental administration at Wellington.