The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Friday, December 5, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 968, 5 December 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Friday, December 5, 1879.

The most objectionable feature m Major Atkinson's financial system is the withdrawal of the subsidies to all the local governing bodies-Munici-pal, County and District Boards. This sum which is £270,000, is * "reckoned by our Colonial Treasurer to be saved to the taxpayers. Nothing can be more fallacious; for the amount will certainly have to be raised by local impositions of some kind or other, or roadworks, bridges, and the formation of new openings to

outlying districts will have to be abandoned. It will be found, when pi-operty is so heavily taxed, as it ■will be under the new system, that the- pinch will be felt with great severity. These subsidies as a rule, and with few exceptions, have been judiciously spent ; for the funds have always been administered under the watchful eyes af the {ratepayers, and when there has been an attempt at waste or log-rolling, a cry has gone forth which has invariably kepb a check upon the local governing bodies. We must hope, from the remarks made by Major Atkinson that when the subsidy supplies are cut off, some other source from whence local bodies can bo assisted -will be found. Something has been promised, but nothing definite or specified. The country people to whom roads and bridges are a necessity, must not quietly submit to the deprivation which will so seriously affect them, unless they are made to understand that the General Government will do that for them which local governments withoutassistance will be unable to accomplish. To place the finances of the Colony on a sound basis 'has been the talk of the Assembly for ever so many sessions, and it is well that the Colonial Treasurer has placed us face to face with our difficulties. It is, as remarked by a very able contemporary, a subject of serious regret that a young and prosperous Colony with such abundant natural resources, and with an increasing ordinary revenue, notwithstanding the commercial depression which has fallen upon us, should be found m so involved a financial position, Nothing, then remains to us but to enter on a thorough system of reform. Every possible expenditure of a nonreproductive character must be pared down to the narrowest limit, and all classes alike must be content to bear their share of increased taxation. By making the close of the financial year the 31st March instead of the 30th June, three months of the estimated deficit of the present year will be avoided, and nearly five months have . already passed, the deficit for these five months having been met by the late Government by the issue of Treasury bills to the extent of £600,000. It is proposed to make good the deficiency between now and the end of March by loans to be authorised by the House. So far then, that is until the end of March next, the deficiency will have been supplied, not out of revenue, but by adding to the general indebtedness of the colony. It is with the new financial year that the difficulty comes, for the deficit of nearly, a million is shown to be a permanent one, and this it is proposed shall be mainly met, first by discontinuing the subsidies of local bodies, a saving of .£27,000 — and secondly by increased taxation which, imposed at once, will have by that time commenced to yield a steady return of revenue. What we most regret to see is, that no attempt has up to the present time been made to reduce expenditure, except it be by the abandonment of public and other necessary works. All the public departments are to be kept- in tact, and there appears to be no efforts made to economise the working machinery of the Government. That this will sooner or later be found to be a necessity we have no doubt whatever. The sooner then the attempt is made, the sooner will the disagreeablenees attending the step pass away.