The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MEROURY,'

Otago Witness, Issue 1489, 29 May 1880, Page 17

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MEROURY,'

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, 29th MAY, 1880.

It is impossible to deny that the feeling of irritation regarding the property tax has been greatly intensified since the issue of the schedules. It is true that these schedules are by no means yet universally issued in Dunedin to all householders, but an official advertisement informs the public, with an almost cynical disregard of the feelings of overtaxed individuals, that " the duty of procuring such forms is cast upon the public ; no person is excused from neglecting to provide himself therewith." This is very much like making a mam who is to be hanged go searching about for the rope which is to hang him. But a sufficient number of persons are already familiar with the contents of these schedules to cause a very wide and general feeling of dissatisfaction as to the statements required of them. If., as the Hon. Mr Hall estimates, fivesixths of the people are really exempted! from payment of the tax, it seems a pity that such persons should be required to nil in elaborate returns which they do not understand, and to read pages of " directions " which only bewilder them still more. We cannot but think that in such cases a simple declaration before a J.P. or Deputycommissioner, something in this form, should suffice :—": — " I, AB, do hereby solemnly and sincerely declare that the whole of my real and personal property, less debts due by me, does not exceed in value the sum of five hundred pounds, and that I owe no money on mortgage of real estate." Or, in cases where such persons do owe money on mortgage, it would be necessary that they should fill in the amount in another column, and the name of the mortgagee, in order that he may be got at by the assessors. One thing which intensifies the feeling of irritation to which we allude is founded on what we believe to be an erroneous interpretation of the Act. We mean that many people are under the impression that the assessors can force their way into private houses to value furniture, jewellery, and even baby-linen. This, so far as we can judgej udge from a perusal of the Act, is entirely incorrect. The only clause giving assessors power of entry is the 38th, which reads as follows : — "Any assessor may enter at any reasonable hour during the day-time upon land or premises for the purpose of assessing real 'proparty^ and may put to the occupier or owner thereof any questions touching any of the particulars thereof which he is required to furnish." This clearly refers only to landed property and buildings, and not to personal belongings, and the clause is almost identical with clause

21 of the Land Tax Act. It seems, however, to be certain that public feeling will not be allayed until personal property is excluded from the operation of the Act, and we think if this were clone the exemption for real property might be reduced to £250. The bitter feeling to which we have alluded has certainly not been allayed by the general character of the appointments made of assessors. These are nob officials entirely outside all trade or business, but men who are or were more or less mixed up in trade with the very individuals whom they will now be called on to assess ; and though they are under the seal of secrecy, they may become possessed of facts which, will necessarily influence their own conduct, and place them in unpleasant relations with many of their fellow citizens. We cannot help thinking that this is a serious defect, and one not easily remedied. It would be well, however, that there should #be some public opportunity of considering these matters, and the suggestion of a correspondent that the Chamber of Commerce should take them into consideration is, in our opinion, not a bad one. Though there are many who would like to see the property tax struck off the Statute-book, there are others who would not be unwilling to pay the tax but for the vexatious circumstances attendiDg its collection.

We heartily endorse the wish of the Premier expressed, in his speech at Christchurch last week, for a compact and united Opposition, an element which is as necessary to the satisfactory working of our Constitution as a compact and united Government party. We fear that such an Opposition can never exist under the leadership of Sir George Grey, who prefers his own sweet will, his pet theories, and his animositiesto the views of a party or the good of the Colony. One somewhat startling allusion made by Mr Hall to a proposal of Sir George's to stop the payment of inter* it to the English debenture-holders to th« extent of 20 j.er cent, we have taken the pains to verify, and here are Sir Georges own words, as recorded in " Hansard" :— " Supposing an income tax was put on of 3d in the pound, imposed on the same principle as in England. Why, these creditors, to Whom we owe some twenty- seven millions of money, or to whom w> soon shall owe that amount, would contribute the, sum of £337,500 a year to that income tax, and it would fall so lightly on them that they would not feel it at all " / Sir George's arithmetic is evidently out here, as 3d in the pound on the income derived by debenture-holders froru interest on theseloaus— some £1 300,000 p.-r annum—would only amount t<> £16,250, and the proposal to mulct them eveuio that extent would involve such v flagrant breach of faith as we should not soon hoar the last of. The whole proposal is characterised by a mischievous recklessness and inaccuracy such as quite unfit Sir George for a party leader. I>t our readers lor a moment imagine tho eff ct of such a proposal on the price of our dobentures on the London Stock Exchange. There is only one name for it, and that is — repudiation.

The very sensational telegram which appears in our telegraphic columns about a filibustering expedition having started from Aden ostensibly for New Britain, but really, as is supposed, for the purpose of intercepting and plundering Australian and New Zealand vessels, if it had not come to us so well accredited as it is, ■we should have treated as a hoax. The a priori improbability is so extremely great that even now we cannot but regard the thing as some gross exaggeration of an actual occurrence. The improbability lies in this, that unless the steamer is a large one she could not long keep the sea for want of coal, and she could not possibly, as we believe, enter any port to get coal without being caught. Coal is as much a sinew of war nowadays as money : is as necessary to a successful raid as gunpowder ; and it would seem almost a dead certainty that such a vessel must speedily be driven into harbour and stopped in her career. However, it is within the range of possibility that she may do harm, and if she does not soon turn up at New Britain — an island N.E. of New Guinea — we may conclude that there is something in the report. As the Indian Government is on the alert, and the telegraph is in operation over a great part of the Eastern seas, as well as to the Cape and Australia, cruisers could very soon be directed to any spot where such a vessel was known to be cruising. We need not, therefore, greatly alarm ourselves about the matter, and as in any case we certainly can do nothing, we may just as well take the whole thing philosophically, and pooh-pooh it.

The introdactu n of magnets into the great grain mills of the West ia tho United Stai e<j has, it is Btated, fulfilled the highest expectations of those who complained of wire in wheat Not only have the magnets captured all the stray pieces of iron ban da, and thus removed the last and only objection urged against wirebanding harvesters, but they have revealed the singular fact that of the scraps of iron and steel which find their way to the mills mixed with \sheat, fully one-balf are something besides pieces of wire, and a larger portion of these are of such a nature as to he even more dangerous to mill machinery. The magnets gather everything of the kind with unerring certainty, thus rendering perfectly safe the use p self-binding harvesters and wirebanaa,