THE Thames Advertiser. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1875.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2178, 21 October 1875, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1875.

In the debate upon- the second reading of the Gold Duty Abolition Bill, which was. introduced into the House of Representativea )oy■ Sit) George Grey, certain statements were made which it ;i?/( desirable,, shoald not pass unchallenged. The opinions of this journal, we observe, were freely and referred, toij andr id the end, they were endorsed by a large majority of the members of th'e House, some of whom had on previous occasions voted for the repeal of the duty. Mr ;Staffprd,' f! w c ho ~would under other circumstances have voted for the repeal of tl\e 'tax, : rfeborded';his vote against the Bill brought forward by Sir George be : did not believe, considering the f alterations made in the * Abolition "Bill, that? the repeal of the duty would, be beneficial to the mining community at' the present time, just when' l 4b; itf; to.';,become of some real service by being localised and treated '- I '.''- ■ ■

We observe in the reply of Sir George Grey, that he has fallen into a mistake regarding the past expenditure ■atUfche .Thames',■ priofc It®,the! period' when he became Superintendent, and accepted the delegated powers over'the goldfields in this province. We do not think that Sir George has had time to make even a cursory examination of the past provincial receipts and expenditure, and w,e are conyinced rthafc he has accepted a ready-made opinion from some other person who has not been particular about; facts, so long as the assertion afforded ground for an argument. In his speech; Sir George Grey repeated the dd' assertion of the Provincial; . party, , ; ,in . the . fallowing, words" The whole of the revenue raised from ' the' Thanes - and far more, had always, been spent by the province on tEe Thames district,' exactly in the'same manner in. which it would beispent now." To this assertion we take exception, and ,we may; state that the figures quoted by us a few weeks .ago will at'a glance show' that it is not correct. We have never. been able. to. Bqueeze our fair, proportion, of revenue out of the provincial 1 ichest, iand. that is,one of the main causes for the discontent with the provincial system at the Thames.;, We ; will venture to say that if this district had received a fair proportion bf expenditure during .'the, past four or five years, we Should to-day have been able to boast ofi goldfields roads in every direction, instead of thp miserable patches that we now possess.,* 'I The debate upon Sir George Grey's Bill threatened at one'time to peculiar phase, namely, whether (He Thames-Advertiser, ,and the. loctvL governing bodies fairly represented tlie opinions:; of .the; miners at'| the, Thame? upon the question, or whether Sir George Grey did so. Sh'ep-" herd thought jthafc the, local bodies of the Thames represented;a few "farmers, squatters, and business w(ho did" iiot want t<) ■paf rates. ;:,; Thi3 shows -'how 'fnudh^or]father, how'little, Mr Shepherd and others 'knoW'about the Thames, '-'There are no 'squatto or farmers here, we - are - sorry .to tay, : and consequently there can be no desire 'to Escape taxation.'' ; Thestatei of things: I pictured sti vividly by "Mr' Shepherdf only exists in his own lively iinagina l -' tion. But the question is not'whbf fairly -repres^W' l the : miners: of«the' .Thames, but h&V; does 'the gold ! dutyi effect the working miner here'i' J ' I Tbis ; is not airi' niluvial field,;where^the mintr himself bears the burden .of the duty, but it comes' directly tflifc'of the pobketsi of mining companies r wfjd would not increase the wages'of "their men by a single .penny .if the duty.were] totally abolished.- - it the goMjduty were abolished _it would probably be necessary to increase the high way "rates* largely at <th'e juid.tlien the workipg^minerwguld for roads for the.use.of his employers—the mining companies, Cn tiie other Hand, if the gold duty is continued as a local rale, we, shall .probably be .able to,do without a highway rate or any other kind of ■ direct -taxation.:'' It js.imposaible- to; .liVe Entirely upon' th'e mere sentiments ,of : Sir George Gfreyl We must .have money 'for .our gold fields, roads and tracks from some source, .id