PARLIAMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 755, 11 September 1878, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

Wellington, September 10. The House of Representatives met at 2.30 p.m. Before proceeding with the business, Major Atkinson suggested that as the business was behind, the Government should ask that the House sit on Monday.. and that Wednesday or Thursday be devoted to Government business. He took this liberty with a view of getting the business expedited, as he was aware how many were anxious to see the business advanced rapidly.

The Premier said the Government would consider the matter, and let the House know to-morrow. The debate on the Land Tax Bill was resumed by Mr. Pyke, who deprecated tho action of so many hon. members cavilling at the small details of the measure, instead of criticising its principles as a whole. He himself would have preferred a wider measure of reform, but he would not cavil at what he considered a measure of that reform for which the country was" so anxious. He heartily concurred in the three main principles of the Bill—the tax of land, the exemption of small holders, and the taxing the unimproved value. He would also support the. second reading of the Joint Stock Companies Bill. The principle was sound ; still he would like to see Gold Mining Companies exempted, because they were taxed already by the gold duty. Small shareholders should also be exempted. If the duty was removed off grain it ought to be removed off timber, but he thought the Government ought to be cautious how they took the duty off grain. The Government had been advised to withdraw their measures, and bring them down next session. He hoped they would not do anything of the kind, but would stand by them and compel the large dividenddrawer, and those with cattle on the hills, to contribute towards the cost of Government, and so relieve the too heavilytaxed working man. Mr. Wason deprecated the imputations by implication cast by the Government upon the importing class. It would have been more manly if the Government had boldly said that the importing class had defrauded the Customs by coolsed invoices. |

As to free trade principles, he yielded to no one, but he thought the tinkering with the tariff by the Treasurer was an insult to free trade. He disapproved of the land tax as something sneaking and insiduous. If the Treasurer would burst up the landed estates of the Colony he ought to say so at once. It appeared to him (Mr. Wason) that the tax looked very like confiscation. It would be a very different thing if the land was very fertile, or if it was excessively scarce. He was at a loss to see why any property should be exempted, but if they were to exempt up to £SOO, why not have a sliding scale, and tax the owner of LSOOO worth more than he with only LIOOO, and so on in proportion to the amount of property held. Mr. Curtis would vote against the second reading of the Bill, chiefly because the statement of the Minister for Public Works, coupled with that of the Treasurer, showed that it was a marked departure from the broad lines of the Public Works policy, viz., the construction of main trunk lines, and which had been understood ever since the institution of that policy. The proposals showed that a very large proportion of the North Island, and the whole of the South Island, were to be heavily taxed in order to promote the construction of railways in the more favored districts of the Colony. For these reasons he must oppose the Bill, though he approved of its principles. Mr. Brandon opposed the proposals. On the motion of Mr. Hunter, the debate was adjourned till 7.30 to-morrow. The House then, at 9.45, adjourned.