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Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3902, 16 September 1873, Page 2

Various rumors are afloat as to the course which the Legislative Council is likely to take with regard to the Provincial Loans Bill. There is no doubt that a strong attempt will be made to turn it out, and there is ju3t the barest possibility that the opponents of the Bill may succeed. But if they do, what then ? What ia to become of the Bills providing security for Provincial Loans which the House has passed in the anticipation of the Provincial Loans Bill becoming law ? Is it for a moment to be supposed that the Colony will allow the question of Provincial public works to remain undecided ? Certainly not. The fact that the Provinces of Otago, Nelson, Maryborough, Hawke's Bay, Auckland, and Wellington, have brought forward proposals for providing security

for special works, proves that even under what may be said to be a distasteful Act, they will not, and cannot afford to, allow the necessary local public works to be neglected. The House has decided that these works shall go on, by having already passed three of the Bills providing for them, and it is impossible that the Government can ignore the universal cry throughout the colony. The Government say that they cannot incommode the credit of the colony by burdening the present revenue with these local works, and ihey propose in the Loans Bill to throw the responsi bilily upon the Provinces or upon the special securities they can provide. This position being taken up and being supported by a very large majority, the only alternative, should the Bill n°t be carried, is a direct taxation of properly. There is no escape from this. Whether the new method of Provincial borrowing is better or worse than the old, there are theso facts to beconsidered: the Provinces must borrow for public works, or public works must cease, excepting those main works constructed by the General Government ; the Provinces cannot and will not remain inactive and allow their unoccupied territory to remain unproductive ; and the Government have declared that they shall only borrow upon their own credit. Obviously, if they are prevented entirely from borrowing, it will become the duty of the Government to bring forward a Bill for imposing a property tax throughout the colony should the failure of the Bill make it incumbent upon them to provide those works which they propose the Provinces should of themselves construct upon their own credit. It would be well for the opponents of the Bill in the Legislative Council to consider this view of the question.