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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8664, 5 September 1891, Page 4

The Waitemata County Council have done a sensible thing in somewhat contemptuously rejecting the proposal of Mr. Jackson Palmer, M.H.R., that they should aid him in certain absurd amendments he proposes to make in the Counties Act. He proposed that all owners of property residing out of the provincial 'district in which that property was situated should pay ten per cent, increase on the ordinai-y rate as an absentee penalty, and that where an owner resided out of the colony he should be fined for absenteeism to the extent of fifty per cent. The members of the County Council are tnem&Uves resident settlers in the county, and must feel the temptation to get money for roads and bridges by pouncing upon those who do not reside on the land they own. But they have some common sense left, and they revolt .at any proposal which is flagrantly unjust". To adopt any such proposal would be glaringly unjust. There are many men owning land in Waitemata County who have paid considerable prices for it, who have not acquired it for specula-! tive purposes, and who would gladly sell it to-morrow for what it cost them. They keep paying rates, and these rates greatly augment the funds -of the county for road works. To impose an extra taxation as a penalty for not occupying their property would simply amount to confiscation. Some large I ratepayers reside out of Auckland, and f occupy considerable areas of poor land as cattle runs. They would be fined ten per cent, per annum, and for what crime As for owners residing out of the # colony, they would have to give up their land at once. It would lie without an owner, and the county would get no rates out of it whatever. The House of Representatives, it is true, have been guilty of the folly and injustice of imposing a tax of twenty per cent, in addition to the land tax on all owners of land who reside out of the colony, in fact, that is one of the distinguishing features of the Liberal legislation of the session. The majority or the House of Representatives, however, are reproved by the genuine settlers who comprise the Waitemata County Council, who tell their member that they " did not consider such legislation desirable, and that the proposed amendment was disapproved of by the Council."