Unjust Dog Tax. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 37

Unjust Dog Tax. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— l am the owner of a bush section of land, I and when possible I am engaged clearing, build- . iug, fencing, and laying it down in grass. At preseut I hare no stock excepting one horse and goodness only, knows how many rabbits. I keep too valuable rabbit dogs As a consequence lam visited by the do£ tax collector, ia the shape of a i hawker, who wants 5s for each dog. Now, Sir, I should like to know why I should pay twice as much by the way of dog tax as another man because bi'i dogs happen to come under a different | heading ? I consider my dogs are as necessary to my well-being as the man who calls hi» sheep and cattlii dogs. In justice I should not be made to pay more than any other man, and I mu«t say whoever lent a hand to frame this unjust law had 'no sense of r ght and wrong. If this law was ever necessary, which I doubt, it is full tiina that it was swept away, an people taking up land in ribMt-infebted country cannot .do, without good doss ; and to make one man pay twice as much as another because ke keeps a couple of dogs to kill rabbits h moustrous, and barefaced robbery, and I intend to Rvade this unjust law, as I hope to bo able to keep some B to 3k ia another year instead of rabbits, and will place my dog» under the heading of sheep and cattle dogs — I am, <fee, Charles Goodali/, Farmer. Hokonui, April 25. •

Referring to the Premier's speeoh to fcbeMaoris at Parawai, the Auckland Herald points out that we have had in the offica of Native Minister the late Justice Richmond, Mr Mantell, Sir F D. Bell, Sir D. M'Lean, Mr Sheehan, Mr Rolleston, Mr Bryce, Mr Mitchslson, and Mr Ballatice, and asks which of these gentlemen did Mr Seddon speak of as " ministering against the Natives instead of for thek good?" Referring to Major Steward's experiences*. Glenary, the North Ofcago Times recalls wha Mr D. Sutherland (who will etaod agains 6 Major Steward) did at Puketiri oa * forme' occasion. A very noisy elector was seized by Mr Sutherland by the " scruff of the neck " and planted in a chair within reach of the speaker's fieb. Quietness reigned supreme thereafter, and at the close the rowdy elector showed his appreciation of the candidate's powers by moving* vote of confidence in him.