The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 322, 22 November 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1879.

The following remarks on the late Financial Statement made by the Wellington Evening Post may be taken as a fair exponent of public opinion on the same in the Empire City. The Government now in office; says our contemporary, find that their predecessors in office have so recklessly squandered the public money and muddled the colonial finances that in their two years of power they have converted the handsome yearly surplus which existed when they took office into a deficit of £551,000 on the current year, and a permanent annual deficiency of some £BOO,OOO. It is the Grey Government who have left on the shoulders of the colony an animal debit of £BOO,OOO, which is at the rate of about £2 on our population of some 400,000. The part of the present Ministry in the transaction is merely to make good as best they may a deficiency which they had no hand in creating, which in fact they did their best to avert, but which nevertheless has been left to them as a legacy by those whom they have succeeded in office. Their task is one so heiculeau, so fraught with immense labor, responsibility and odium, that they might almost have been excused had they shrunk back appalled from an undertaking so formidable. But to their credit, be it said, they have not thus "put their hand to the plou4, and turned back;" they have not tried by " tinkering" a little here and there, by manipulating accounts, borrowing in one direction, getting advances in another, and _ by the thousand-and-one devices familiar to political financiers endeavored to "make things pleasant" -to put off the evil day, when delay meant ruin-to lull to sleep, when sleep would be death. We do not profess to pronounce any judgment as yet on the details of the Ministerial proposals, These will need careful and painstaking examination in all their bearings, and this of necessity must be a work of time. Nay, the most important detail of all—the Property Tax Bill-by which measure three-fifths of the total sum needed to make up the . deficit is proposed to be raised, is not yet before the House. It may be that we shall find much that, in our opinion it would be desirable to alter and amend in the proposals as now submitted, admittedly "in the rough." That is a matter for future consideration, We are now' dealing merely with the general spirit of the Statement—that of meeting our difficulties boldly in the face, of" making a clean breast" of our whole position, "nothin* extenuating nor aught setting down iJ malice, and of making an earnest vigorous, and determined effort to overcome those difficulties, and to place our finances once more on a sound and enduring basis. That principle has our hearty approval and support. It is the opinion of those best qualified to jmta, that the determination evinced by the present Government to act on such a principle and to carry it out thoroughly will have a marked influence on the Home money market, as. proving our finances to be really solvent, our resources elastic, and our Government resolved on reforming the disorder into which our fiscal system had drifted It is believed that this will have an appreciable and excellent effect in regard to the floating of the new loan, and this in itself would be a vast public gain. The fresh burden placed on us through the incompetence and profligacy of the late Ministry is undoubtedly a very heavy one-£2 per head per annum on an average. But the assertion of one Greyite organ, that "practically the proposals made increase the taxation to the extent of about £2 per head for every man, woman, and child in the colony," is so obviously ridiculous and inaccurate that it must proceed either from very dense ignorance, or else from a deliberate intention to deceive, For in the first place, three-fifths, of the whole sum is to be furnished by a property tax, which exempts all property under the value of £300; and, in the next place, the new duties are to be imposed mainly on articles of comparative luxury, so that the real pressure of taxation will vary according to the ability of the persons taxed to bear it, and proportionately to the sacrifice each would thus be called on to make; so the probability is that while the richer numbers of the community will have to pay perhaps £2O on an average more than hitherto, the poorer classes, who form the vast majority, will not pay more than perhaps 2s per head extra, lhese figures, of course, are taken merely at haphazard, but such at least is the principle on which the Government proposals appear to be founded; and, if so, it is a fair and just one, which should commend itself to general approval.

lovns & Fergusson hold their sale of furniture, &c , at 2 o'clock to-day. Shearers are wanted at the Kauminei station. Tenders close to-day fir painting the Victoria Hotel, Feailiersfcon. A telegraph station will he opened at weytown, County of Taieri, on Monday next, the 24th inst.

Mr K Oartor announces his intention °c . I '? ma ™ l )B in Grey town until the close of the Christmas holidays, during which time he will continue his clearing sale of fancy goods, &c. At the meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, to be held this evening, papers will be read by Dr Curl, and Messrs Crawford, Coleman Phillips and Hamilton,

It is notified' thut portiona "of-section's' A n( l 62 have been token for the purposes of the Greytown Branch Railway.

It is not generally known that a privet ''edge is a poisonous plant. Yesterday l)r fiosking was called in to attend Mr J. M. Girdlestone's little boy who was seriously ill, having been poisoned by eating privet.

Two lads were riding up Queen-stroet last evening on. one horseboth fell off and one escaped injury, while the other was picked up insensible, Mr R, Brown has gone to Wellington to give evidence before a committee of the Legislative Council on the Greytown and Maaterton Trust Lands Bill,

Mr Hooker s two new shops at Carterton are being rapidly completed. We believe it is Mr Hooker's intention to keep one as hairdresser's and tobacconist's, and the other is let to Mr A. Fisk as a millinery department.

Active steps are being taken to secure a suitable recreation ground at Greytown, Overtures are being made for an eight or ten acre block in the centre of the Boroufjh, with every probability of success, so that a want long felt is soon likely to be satisfied,

A telegram dated London, November 18) leports that the new series of colonial wool auction sales opened to-day. The quantity catalogued was 73,000 bate, and the tone of the sale was very active. Australian merinos showed 10 per cent." and cvoss-breds 16 per cent advance, bales close ou the 9th December,

Mr Phillips, of the ship Rakaia, has promised to exhibit in Masterton his beautiful dissolving views, which have been exhibited in Wellington in aid of St Peter's and St. Paul's Churches. His entcrtainment is in aid of the choir, who require new hymn and church books, and the Sunday School in anticipation of Christmas prizes and treat,

A correspondent writes The new tariff proprsed seems to give general satisfaction throughout the Wairarapn, including Masterton, Carterton, Greytown, and Feather,ston, and it is generally believed thatj'f the present Premier was to visit the vVairarapa he would receive a grand ovation. The new measure to replace subsidising local bodies is anxiously looked

Yesterday morning, a man named ihomas Norsley was found dead near the homestead at Brancepetli Station. He had been missing nearly two days, It is supposed that lie either died from a fall over a bank or from exposure, He was found under a bank nearly 40 feet high, Of course the usual inquest will "be held.

Mr E, L, Wakelin, of Carterton, is making extensive additions to his saw and flour mill. The building is to be used for the storage of grain, and--ought., to be largely patronised by farmers during the coming season, more particularly as we believe it is Mr Wakelin's intention to make no charge for storage of any grain left with him either for disposal or as grist.

Strange rumors get abroad about gold (UKI 00.1, etc, and strange facts are sometimes elicited as a result, but we get nothing definite to allow sufficient grounds to recommend leports to be followed ud. Lately we have seen it reported that a prospecting party had gone out, and striking southwards came across the Waiouue, from whence they brought ten or twelve pounds of gold-showing metal; but upon being questioned as to why they lac not brought more stone, stated they iiad no tools, not even a hammer, It is strange a prospecting party should go out without tools. It is also said that they came across landslips, which they found upon looking up, showed rock, and which looked like coal. These must have been cool prospectors, or else very innocent amateurs.