A Man From Howick.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 828, 6 October 1894, Page 2

A Man From Howick.

The loss of capital to the colony by reason of the misguided policy of the Government in entering into competition with the ' hundred-per-shenter ' still continues. It is our deplorable duty to acquaint our fellow citizens of the intended departure from our shores of a gentleman who came to this country not long since with a hundredweight of bills of sale forms and a quarter-of-a-million in money. It was his intention to finance for the improvident dude, the sportive masher, and the spendthrift clerk at forty per cent, and upwards. He contemplated a big opposition to the respectable firm of Moses and Co. in the cottage piano and suburban-residence furniture security line, but, alas, this great commercial undertaking has been lost to us. The man from Howick is alarmed at the proposed legislation, of the Government in the direction of cheapening money, and has decided to clear out of the country with

his bills of sale and his quarter-of-a million. And we the people ought to sit ■in sackcloth and ashes and bemoan onr loss. * * #

This little fairy tale from Howick is a thumping lie. But barring this confession, it is as much entitled to credence as the very improbable yarn the Herald has been working off on its readers about ' a man from Kingsland ' who brought £30,000 to the colony for the purpose of establishing his family in the farming industry, but who has been so unsettled in his mind by the legislation of the Government that he is about to betake himself off to some other country with his money. It is a very pawky story, this Kingsland one. ' It won't hold water. There are as many holes in it as there are in a vegetable strainer, and one can see through it as easily as through a pair of opera-glasses.

There are weaknesses in the Government legislation, and plenty of them, but they are not such as a man coming to the colony with £30,000 to invest in farming would be likely to take exception, to. For example, it is very aptly pointed out that if such a man had come to New Zealand before the present Government came into power, he would have been taxed at one penny per annum on every one of his thirty thousand pounds, whether his capital yielded him a return or not. He would also have been taxed upon his farm, his stock, his implements and his belongings. Now, he has no tax to pay on his capital, his farm improvements are exempt from taxation, and he is placed in the position of being able to acquire splendid land under the lease in perpetuity system, which requires from him only a modest annual rental and leaves the whole of his capital available for improvements and legitimate farming operations. No, no. There are colonists who have reason to complain of the Government legislation, but they are not men who come to New Zealand with money to embark in farming enterprise. The legislation of the last two sessions has done everything for intending settlers.

Why, then, should the Herald be perpetually urging these new comers to clear out of New Zealand again as quickly as they came? As the Star very appropriately says, the Herald proprietary have no intention of scutling away themselves. They are just now expending an immense sum of money in magnificent buildings for their own business. That does not look like a want of faith in the future of the country. On the contrary, it furnishes a striking commentary upon their perpetual dismal predictions of impending national bankruptcy. And if the Herald proprietary are satisfied to stay, and satisfied in spite of their own croakings to spend forty or fifty thousand pounds in new offices, why do they persist in making thing 3 worse for other people by everlastingly urging a stampede of capitalists from the country ? It is a very mistaken and profitless policy.