ABOLITION OF COUNTY SUBSIDIES.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 21 June 1880, Page 2

ABOLITION OF COUNTY SUBSIDIES.

A largely attended meeting of the in* habitants of the Inangahua was held in I Dawson's Hall, on Saturday evening last, for the purpose of considering the new financial proposals of the Government, bat more particularly with respect to the threatened withdrawal of County subsidy, i The County Chairman, Mr P. Brennan, having been voted to the chair, opened the proceedings. He said the meeting had been convened in obedience to a generally expressed wish throughout the community, in order that some definite opinion should be pronounced by the ratepayer! as a body Japan thdi policy recently foreshadowed by the Colonial Treasurer, For his own part he felt that there could be but one opinion as to the effect upon the West Coast Counties of carrying out those proposals, which was that the result would be the utter and complete annihilation of all local govern* ment. There could be no doubt whatever that the withdrawal of subsidies would be not only ruinous to the public bodies, but would also be disastrous to property, and deal a death-blow at every kind of industry. To suppose that the West Coast Counties could carry on road maintenance and open up the country if left dependent upon their own resources, was preposterous, and the result would inevitably be that the main roads, which had already absorbed so many thousands of pounds of local taxation, would be neglected, and the years of labor which had been devoted to them would after the lapse of a season or two be irretrievably lost. If very resident on the Weat Coast knew that our prosper ry depends in an important degree upon the opening up of the interior, indeed it might be truthfully said that but for the efforts of the local bodies in this direction dur' ing the past three years, nearly one* fourth of the present mining populate n of the West Coast would now be clamoring for labor or bread in the large cities of the Colony. (Cheers.) Remove this power from Counties situated as plicae are and what must be the eflect. not only locally, but to tbe Colon? at brsje ? It .'would be that tUe goM rHurns of the West Coast would shrink aid population diminish as rapidly as both had Brown during the past three years. The yearly gold yield of this part of the Colony was now at the head of the list, and who could doubt that this was in a great measure due to the fostering care of the County Councils in opening up the country, very often to the neglect of those town improvements, wbioh people had % right to expect as the legitimate fruit of local taxation, (Cheers.) Take the case of our own County s thee* y/ars ago there were not 0f& alluvial miners at workitt the whole of the Inangahua. owing entirely to the fact that the country was inaccessible. To»day there is a large and thriving population _ throughout the County working alluvial localities opaned up with tbe very subsidies which tbe Government now threatened to withdraw. The same could no doubt be s«td of the adjoining Counties, and if this encourage' ment to the mining iaiu'-.hry vis io cease, and cease it unquestionably would if the subsidies were withdrawn; tbe in* jury would recoil upon the Colony at large. (Cheers.) This County had close

— y^, j up on two hundred tailes of main road to i maintain, besides an immeuse length .of tracks, and double the taxation of tuo past would not suffice to perform that one work, to say nothing of the prosecution of new works, and it was quite out of the question to suppose that the community could stand such a strain. However, as there were other speakers to follow, he he would hot prolong his remarks, but would call upon Mr John M'Gaffin to move the first resolution. Mr M'Gaffin sail the resolution he had to propose was as follows ■:— " That the Inhabitants of the Inanga* hua County hereby protest against the proposal of the Government to withdraw the County subsiJies as fixed by the 1 Financial Arrangements Act,' inasmuch as it is impossible to maintain the main roads from local rates only." Tbe new proposals of the. Government in regard to withdrawal of subsidies, were no doubt well known, and be felt sure there was but one opiniorf in regard to them*. As those proposals sfood they meant extinction, not only to this County | hut to ill local Government on the West Coast. It was true that the Government gave the people the power to tax them* themselves to the extent of 2a in the £. but even if the people accepted such a proposal it would be quite inadequate. Hitherto Is rates had been levied in tins bounty, but it had in reality been levied upon a valuation fully 100 per cent, above the present value to let of property; It was evident then that this County cou'd not possibly subsist under the new system, snd it was therefore the duty of the inhabitants to make such representations to the members as will cause them to hesitate to support a Government thai could enforce such an iniquitous propog'l. Experience has shown that it has been nothing but a struggle for the Council in the past to keep its 200 miles of main road open, but without the subs sidythe maintenance could not possibly be carried on. This Council was perhaps the best off of any on the West Coast, and yet it bad never been free from em« | barrassment or able to meet its payments with contractors. What, therefore, was, the position of the County likslj to be without subsidy ? HevWwed the pr«» posal as nothing short of an insult to the inhabitants of a County situated as this was, and it became a question how far such a Government was worthy of sup« port. , The proposal appeared the more monstrous when th^y" reflected that at the present moment when tbe whole of the West Coast C<mntie» were owr* whelmed with liabilities, there were a few Eoad Boards in Oattterhury possessing credit baln-nces. of ' £360.000. Those bodies had. no long lengths o{ taaia roa ! to keep open j no gold»bearing country to open up for the good of tbe Colony, ie short, had no works to perform such an these Coufrties had, /and yet they had drawn pound for pound from the Consolidated Fund with the goldfields Counties. Such a state of things was mon« stronjly unjust, but the present proposals were infinitely more unjust, and ought not to be submitted to, (Cheers.) Mr W. Williams seconded the motion, which was put and carried unanimously. Mr Davies said that the Financial Arrangements Aefc provided that subsidies should Jbe continued to Counties until li&l/lb that tbe Government were acI tually committing a breach of faith in seeking to terminate that provision. Many of the Counties relying upon tbe continuance of the subsidies to the time specified in the Act, had let contracts for m intenance up to that time, and now tbe Government sought to deprive those bodies of the means of keeping their ob» ligatioDS. They said we could increase our taxes and borrow, but he held that increased taxation was impossible, and to borrow, with so many Counties in the market, we should have to pay a rate of interest which would be quite prohibitive. That provision of the new proposal was therefore a perfect nullity. The West Coast WBB in a very exceptional position. Tbe mining population contributed to a larger extent to the revenue of the Colony than any other class, and yet w« had really nothing to show for our large contribution. We had ©either roads nor railways. It was not nard to understand where the enormous rf venues raised on the Wes f Co?"t had gone to. In *be early days of the West Coast Canterbury po** \ sessed no revenue, and appropriated the revenue of the Coast and made their roads, and in addition to this bad filched the West Coast's share of the twenty seven millions of borrowed money. It was only necessary to look to the Amuri County, which adjoined this on tbe south-east, to find how differently the goldfields Counties were situated in comparison with those of the settled districts. The Amur! County at the present time bad a credit balance of £6000. In short, a 3d or 4d rate annually had been sufficient to perform all the works they required, and the subsidy on tbe amount obtained from the Government has been lodged in the bank. It had been sbown that one Coun»;y in Canterbury tw. jeava age had fi>9,ooo tn its cred ; . T:.i. vr' . '.-' of tW VT,-, C-a.-i j C< ■adties ,wero beuvil" m utb f *H ! noiwitusiartaing that, the C unites ( which had most to do, had iiithert > I

been most ? ourly bcibsidiseu, the Government now desired to thro v the goldfields over altogether. A remedj could be provided by taxing wool, but it was hopeless to expect thai; such a tax would be passed by the Houses as at present constituted. In all the other colonies such a tax existed, but the enemies to such a tax were too | numerous in the Upper House of this Colony to leave any chance of its pas" sing. The Land Revenue of this County was nothing at all. In the settled districts, however, it returned large sums, and were that fund consolidated, and a fair share of it divided amongst the goldfields Counties, something like all round justice might be done, but the Government knew that they could not make such a proposal and retain office. As it would be only right in pointing out the unfairness of the Government scheme that a remedy should be suggested, he would submit the following ; — •' That having in view the fact of the tcajor portion of the revenue derived from the West Coast goldfields having been expended in other parts of the Colony, this meeting is of opinion that in order to do justice to the West Coast a uniform rate should be struck by the various County tfounoils, and tbe amount realised therefrom consolidated and applied to subsidising the Counties for construction and maintenance of main roads and bridges." He merely submitted the suggestion for the consideration of the meeting, and if any better suggestion was forthcoming, he would readily yield to it. (Cheers ) The motion was seconded by Mr Hankin, and carried unanimously, Mr Mirfin moved that copies of tbe foregoing resolutions be telegraphed to the members for the district, Mr Guinness, Chairman of the Grey County Council, seconded the resolution, It gave him great pleasure to see the inhabitants of this County taking the lead in expressing an opinion upon the question under consideras tion, and he was equally glad to see that the opinion so expressed was uoa animoui. At a time like tbe present, when an important change was pending in the governing system of the Colony, it was the obvious duty of the people to carefully consider the : r position, and endeavor to ascertain bow far f hat change waa likely to be benefica: or injurious, This it was neef mp< that the people here should I do, for l : ;s proper promotion of their ov»u iu !■ exeats, e3 well as for the guidance of their neighbors, for there was no doubt that the interests of the jwhole of the West Coast Counties were inseparably bound together, and he felt that whatever course was decided upon here, it would materially assist the adjoining bodies in whatever step they might take against the new fiscal proposals of tbe Govern* ment. Both the members for tbe district had requested to be informed of the opinion of their constituents upon tba alNimportant changes, and it was quite evident that they wished to know what the feeling of the people was. He had a suggestion to make, and it was this : Under tbe Hating Act mining property was exempt from taxation, and the reason for the ex% emption no doubt was that the Government thought the mining industry, what wifch gold duty, miners* rights, rent of leases and other charges, was already sufficiently taxed j well he should ask the Government to sx\bsU disc the Goldfields revenue. This would be only a fair concession to make to goldfields Counties, and he should like to see it carried into effect. (Cheers.)