A TAX ON WIDOWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2223, 20 June 1908, Page 3

A TAX ON WIDOWS.

A HUMOROUS CANDIDATE. SOME CURIOUS IDEAS. Among the 10 candidates who are said to be in the field for the Hurunui seat is a Air Reiter, who delivered his first speech at Mackenzie on Thursday night. The local public apparently regard his candidature as a joke, for (adds the “N.Z. 'Herald”) Air Reiter has some remark ihie ideas. He said among other tilings, that the Government should start new industries, and that, as a beginning, it •should offer a bonus of £IO,OOO for the first 10,000 yards of linen produced in the Dominion, the linen to become the property of the Government, and bo given to the poor. Working men ought to get linen shirts as cheaply as cotton oims. Hr would reduce the National Debt by putting.) tax of £1 a head on bachelors, beginning at the age of 18. Subsequently he raid lie would tax widows 10s a head. “Are .you in favor,” he was asked, “of setting apart a thousand acres on Cheviot for growing fish ” —“Yes.” lie replied, “if Sir Joseph Ward will agree to it.” In reply to another question, he said lie was not in favor of the absolute majority, because it would play into the hands of the prohibitionists. Apparently the candidate thought the absolute and bare- majority are the same tiling. Asked as to whether lie thought the Yellow Peril .real or imaginary he slid he had never 6oen a Chinaman with the yellow peril. The “Cheviot News” quite rudely suggests that Air Reiter would make a better clown than a politician.