AN OPEN LETTER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6872, 16 July 1909, Page 7

AN OPEN LETTER

(To tho Editor "N.Z. Times.") Sir, —In your leader of tlie 6tli Inst you attack the public opinion oi Westland, as expressed by our public bodies, leading citizccs and tlie press, all of whom you accuse of "an overwhelmin’ degree of misrepresentation/' You characterise manj* of our level-headed business men <*s fakirs of "bogus indignation meetings/' engineered by keepers," "concession-mongers," and

"holders of paid-up shares in some venture of doubtful future/’ etc., etc. iiat after making all these, and many more equally false and sweeping stute’monts hi support of the. autocrats of the Mines Department, and their champion, your anonymous correspondent "Kilowatt" (whom you are complacent enough to say “xmts tho matter very fairly"), you might, at least, have stated some facts and. figures showing reasonable grounds for such rabid allegations. You do not even attempt it, neither does tho Xian. -McKenzie nor iiis ob&eq'uious iiunkey “Kilowatt," and all for the tame reason —simply because you cannot mean. it. I’ou are all, however, experts at trailing Government "red herrings." For instance, you would persuade your readers, and especially tho '‘electric light consumers" in Wellington, tiiat a tax of ono-iillietii of, a penny per electrical unit is dirt cheap for hydraulic mining purposes. You omit, however, to state that Sir Joseph Ward’s last words upon this water tax (also based upon "export" figures from the Mines Department) are as follows: "Each head of water deliverel at Rim a would cost thirteen, pounds fourteen shillings and twopence per annum."

You perceive, sir, that this new tax 01 sold mining is altogether a different matter to paying the WoUington City Corporation tenpenoe per unit tor electric light, and yet you assure .your readers that you “have not the least hesitation in telling the public that the alleged popular indignation (in Westland) Ms bogus from beginning to end. Now, sir. do you mean to tell the public of New Zealand that there are any individual miners, or mining companies, who consider such a tax (on top of what they already pay) is anything leso than an outrageous imposition, in the face of the fact that gravitation water costs nothing but for the construction and maintenance of races? Will you and ypur anonymous authority now' please explain why the miners of Westland are wrong in objecting to pay a tax of £l3 14s 2d per head for pumped water, whin gravitation water costs nothing, especially as they would also have to pay for the costs of developments, equipments and maintenance as well. Sir Joseph Ward was certainly ill-advised when he attempted to draw a favourable comparison between this tax of £l3 14s 2<l on waste water and £26 oer head per apumn (the 'department's own figures) for Kumara race water. Here, for example, is a water race sixteen and a half miles long, with a capacity of 32 heads, which cost the taxpayers of New Zealand £153,000 to construct. There is no tax on this water, which is supplied at the very nominal rat© of 2»ld per head per hour, to cover maintenance charges only. This race, according to Mr McKenzie's own statement, ' never has paid," and it never will pay, end yet there is no catch-penny talk al out “conserving the interests of the rest of the people of the Dominion" in this case.

But the momeit private enterprise pioposes to find a similar amount for a pumping scheme of much greater public utility, at Rimu, then it becomes. ; n the eyes of officialdom, a rascally monof cly of “one of the most valuable birthrights of the peoplfe," although tb.it. precious “birthright" will never do 'ths people" a single thilling's-worth of good under the present regime. As for what you style the "speculative exploitation of national assets," perhaps you will be good enough to explain in what particular "gold mining" can be anything else but a speculative exploitation?—not, however, in the sur© and easy way that "Kilowatt" and your other political adventurers in Wellington exploit and humbug the people of New Zealand' “for all they can get out of them." —I am, eto., C. J. PARHAM, . Promoter of th. Tparoha and Rimu Power and Mining Schemes. Hokitika, July 12th.