South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, DEC. 9, 1879.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2095, 9 December 1879, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. TUESDAY, DEC. 9, 1879.

The good news regarding tlie London wool sales lately cast a gleam of sunshine through the wide-spread gloom with which a season of depression overshadowed the colony. The mist of the future has just been rolled hack in a still more significant and felicitous manner hy the intelligence cabled announcing the floating of the five million loan. The fact that the whole of this loan has been successfully launched will, we presume, tend materially to relieve the mind of the Government, and who knows but that it may have a cheerful and salutary influence on our present despondent Colonial Treasurer. Major Atkinson has now a good opportunity of relinquishing his obnoxious Property Tax and redeeming some of that reputation as a financier which some of his recent proposals have so materially damaged. If the Government in their desire to hurry to a conclusion the work of the session should determine to hold the Property Tax Bill in abeyance they will perform an

act of political discretion as regards themselves, and a graceful and merciful act as regards the country. The divisions that have as yet taken place on the Property Assessment Bill are discreditable to Parliament as a whole. The circumstance that |the measure is recognised as one of vital importance, and yet that out of a House composed of eighty-eight members only thirtyeight, or considerably less than onehalf,recorded their votes for and against its second reading, says but little for the manner in which the business of the country is being conducted. Admitting that the Colonial Treasurer is somewhat to blame in introducing such an important innovation on the past system of revenue raising at the fagend of the session, that does not justify the Opposition in absenting themselves. If the Treasurer in making his sweeping proposal has made a mistake and disgusted hislfriends,that is no reason why an opposition which was pledged to oppose a general property tax should desert its post at a critical moment. The best of financiers are liable to err, and it appears to us, at this juncture, to be a mean thing on the part of the bulk of the House to take advantage of Major Atkinson’s error, and instead of assisting him over the stile, to stand upon their dignity, and Pontius Pilate-like, wash their hands of a measure which they know would be ruinous to the country, without actively resisting it. The attitude of the Grey-Macandrew party over this Property Tax Bill can hardly be misunderstood. Resistance, they consider", would be impolitic. They know that the property tax is abhorrent to the country, but they have resolved that if it is to be buried, those who introduced it must be the undertakers. In the language of the chief of the party, they will neither “ touch, taste, nor handle it.” The meaning of this passiveness is, we think, obvious enough, and the Government, if wise, will be on the alert. The Opposition'jknow that the longer this Property Tax can be kept like a thing of evil omen before the country, the more disgusted the country will become. Not content with unbaring his cupboard skeleton, the Colonial Treasurer has proposed a remedy so preposterous that to seriously attempt to enforce it would be suicidal on the part of any Government however strong. The proposal of a property tax sealed the fate of the strongest Ministry that the colony of Victoria ever saw, and we have no hesitation in saying that if an attempt is made to bring such an iniquitous measure into operation the political days of the men who have had a hand and part in it will be numbered. The tax is one so revolutionary in its nature that public opinion should be tested with regard to it before it is imposed. Any effort to bring about a system of taxation obnoxious to the people by a side wind will assuredly be resented in a startling manner at the ballot-box. The Colonial Treasurer has tried to comfort the country by the assurance that the tax cannot be imposed before next August. Our own conviction is that it will not be imposed at all; that long before August, 1880, it will be found to be quite a superflous piece of legislation. In the meantime, however, it is calculated to do a great deal of damage if it is allowed to hang like a sombre curtain across the future destinies of our young industries. We want to encourage trade by bright prospects, not to discourage it by dismal forebodings. If the Property Tax is not likely to be necessary, and the ease with which the new loan has been floated shews this to be the case, the evil thing should be put out of the way —buried out of sight. Because the Opposition desire nothing better than to keep the nauseous Atkinson-blister before the convalescent patient, that is no reason why the commerce and manufactures ot New Zealand should be permanently injured. The suspension of this guillotine over the ncaks of our young industries may answer the purpose of the Grey-Macandrew, or the young New Zealand party, but it does not answer the purpose of the colony. We would advise Major Atkinson, now that the floating of the five million loan has helped him out of his immediate difficulties, to emulate the example of the plucky Crimean soldier who saved his comrades by lifting a shell just on the point of exploding from the vessel’s deck and pitching it overboard, to ‘ save the Cabinet, of which he is a member, by dexterously putting this Property Tax out of sight.