THE Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY MONDAY, AUGUST 16,1880.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 16 August 1880, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY MONDAY, A UGUST 16, 1880.

It would leem that County Councils are threatened with another danger, and one which, if actually brought home, will effectually demoliib the whole fabric of local selfsgovernment. Dr. Pollen hus just discovered that prior to the abolition of Provincialism, {til spirit license fees formed part of the ordinary Provincial revenues, and that upon such ordinary revenue the cost of the maintenance of police within each .district was charged. This, he argue*, is the proper logical sequence, urging ■ that as the public houses increased the need for police, wherever the former were most numerous, upon that distrct should he charged the greatest burden of police maintenance. He pointed out that when the central system of Govern* ment was inaugurated, the Police pepariment was made. a Colonial one, and its cos* charged upon the general revenue, the license fees, however,

ordinary income of Comities. This Dr. Pollen complains of as being bad la principle, find be hag accordingly noved in the Legislative Council for a return showing tbe total amount of icense fees collected annually within »cb County of tbe Colony, with tbe >bject, it would appear, of bringing toward a proposition either that the sost of police should be saddled upon Counties, or that tbe license fees should be merged in tbe Colonial revenue. He further expressed tbe opinion that this was a very valuable "nest egg," wbicbtbe Government had lost sight of, as be estimated tbe total receipts from this source WffiM £40000 annually. Mr Whitaker, in replying on behalf of tbe Government, said it would be difficult to furnish a return showing the total sum yearly received under tbe denomination of " license fees," as fine* and other charges collected in the Police Courts fell under that beading, but that there would be no difficulty in the way of compiling a return of the gross amount raised each year from the issue of publicans' licenses; Dr Pollen expressed his willingness to be content with tbe re* turn in the form suggested, and here the matter rests for the present The sam annually derived by this County from tbe issue of hotel licenses is, we believe, about £1,000, and what the effect of the withdrawal of this sum from the coffers of tbe Council would be, may be imagined. Leaving aside, however, for the time being, tbe quest tion of the consequences certain to re* suit from a deprivation of the license revenue, we do not know that it is as yet a generally accepted axiom that publichouses increase the need for police. It is, we know, a constantly iterated argument of Temperance Reformers, but despite of all the vehement hammering which the subject has received from all the cold-water crusadenMrom the time of Moses, we de not know that it has yet been beaten up into the compact form of a truism. We are no apologists for publicans or their calling/ but this foisting into the consideration of public questions the doubtful doctrines of Teetotalism, appears to us to be both ill-judged and inopportune. If proof were necessary to show the hollow* ness of such a contention, what more conclusive could be desired than that furnished around us. There are perhaps in this County more licensed houses per head of the population than in any other part of the Colony — we were almost going to say the habitable globe— and yet two officers of the peace are considered sufficient, and have for years proved sufficient to main* tain order in a district nearly a hundred miles long. In the face of this fact we venture to enter our humble protest against the worthy doctor's assertion.