The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-03-18 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MoNDAY

The follow ng railway bills were severally read a second
time and ordered to be committed :—The Scottish
'Central Railway, the Newcastle and Berwick Railway,
the Eastern Counties (Cambridge and Huntingdon)
Railway, the Ulster Railway Extension. the Caronridge
and Lincoln Railway, the Oxford and Rugby Railway,
the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, the York and
North-Midland Railway (Goole branch), the West Corn-
wall Railway, and the Lynn and Ely Railway.

On the motion for bringing up the report on the pro-
perty and income-tax bill.
Mr. C. BULLER moved the following resolution :
" That the circumstances under which the renewal of the
income-tax is at present proposed are such as to render it
exceedingly improbable that parliament will have the
power of dispensing with its continuance at the end of
three years ; and that it is, therefore, the duty of thin
house to take care that the tax be imposed in a form in
which is operation shall be less unequal and inquisitorial
than it n•iw is."

The CH ANCELLOR of the EXCH EQUER said the amend-
ment was indefinite, and could only tend to impede the
progress of the bid.
Sir li. PEEL replied to the various objections which
bad been ma ie to his financial arrangements. and in re-
ply to he objections of Sir R. El. Inglis, that the first
£l5O should be the zero of taxation. said that this would
be a sacrifice of £4 10s. in the case of each of 200.000 in-
dividuals who now contributed to the income-tax—thus
implying a loss to the revenue of nearly 5',1,000,000 ster-
ling. The bill proposed the continuance of the tax for
three years only, in order to enab a them to try a great
experiment in the reduction of taxes pressing on com-
merce, and if. at the end of that period. the government
should deem it advisable to continue it as a perpetual
burden, it would then be time enough to discuss the
principle of direct taxation.
The house divided, and the motion of Mr. C. Buller
was negatived by a majority of 240 to 112.
Mr. MILES moved a clause to the effect, that a tight of
appeal should be given to tenant farmers in all cas a where
their profi.s may not amount to the proportion of rent on
whictr the tax was to be assessed.

The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER said the propo-
isition was too one-sided to be agreed to, and it would be
an injustice to the oth-r clasaes of society by whom the
lax was paid.
The house again divided, and the clause was rejected
by a majority of 196 to 92.
'1 he remain;ng amenilmenta were postponed.
. .

The report was then brought up, and the bill ordered to

be engrosed

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-TVESDAY

Mr. SOMES moved fir copies of all correspondence be-
tween the Colonial-office and the Governor of New Zea-
land se-pecting the issue of debentures and the rexiderinst
them a legal tender in that colony, the taxes proposed in
the Legislative Council, the outrages recently committed
by the natives in the Bay of Islands, and a proclamation
•issued by the Governor of New Zealand allowing the sale
of land by the natives at a less price than that fixed by the
act of sth and 6th Vic., c. 36.

Mr. AGLIOSBY seconded the motion, and proceeded to
ask whether the Government was aware that in that colony
inconvertible paper-money had been made by the Gover-
nor a legal tender for sums as low as 25., and whether the
Governor bad previously received authority by warrant
from the Colonial Department to issue such debentures
to the amount of £15,000? He also wished to know
whether it was true, that in a colony which was to flourish
by its agriculture, a tax of 10s. had been levied on every
sheen imported, and a similar tax on every dog imported
to herd them—what the house thought of a Governor who
placed a tax of £1 on every house in which more than
three rooms were inhabited, and whether the Governor
had vindicated the character of this country by protect-
ing the whites against the outrages of the natives ? Nine
of our countrymen had been murdered in cold blood, and
bad been tomabawked after they had given up their arms.
had the Governor made inquiry into the circumstances
of that massacre ? or had be, as was reported, gone to the
murderers' tribe and declared himself satisfied ? He also
wanted to know in what manner the honour of the British
flag had been vindicated after it had been cut down at the
Custom-house, and our men and women had been grie-
vously insulted. He then made several inquiries respect-
ing the sale of land in New Zealand, and observed, that
when be got an ans%%er to those inquiries, he should bring
forward a distinct motion on the subject, and should call
for further information. There were now 16,000 or 17,000
white inhabitants in New Zealand, they were all in deep
distress, and they all attributed it to the measures adopted
by the local Governor. He thought that as the funds of
the New Zealand Company had now failed, and as they
had suspended their colonizing projects, it was important
that the Governor should pay immediate attention to this
subject. _ _ _

Mr. HOPE protested against the course pursued by Mr.
Aglionby. He knew a fortnight ago, that all the infor-
mation for which he now moved was at any moment at
his command, and yet he made a speech, as if that infor-
mation would be withheld. He had also said that he
would not raise the New Zealand question, but, at the
same time he suggested that the Government had been
guilty of a breach of faith towards the New Zealand Com-
pany. Why did he not come boldly forward, make his
charge, and endeavour to suostantiate it? It had been
stated out of doors that the New Zealand Company in-
tended to proceed by impeachment against Lord Stanley,
for his misconduct as head of the Colonial Department,
and that Lord Stanley had escaped from that 11.. use in
order that he might not be called upon to answer those
charges ; and now Mr. Aglionby, acting on tik. bit by bit
system, gave notice that he would make a charge on a
future day against the noble Lord, when he ht.-tug:it tor-
ward a future m. don ! Having made several indignant
comments on this extraordinary proceeding, Mr. Hope
proceeded to answer the questions which Mr. Aglionby
had put to him. The Government had disapproved the
debentures issued by the local Governor, and they had
been withdrawn in consequence. He could not state
whether Mr. Aglinnby's information respecting the taxes
imposed in New Zealand was correct or not, inasmuch as
the Government. owing to some accident, had been an
unusually long time without intelligence from that colony.
Bat with respect to the outrages at the Bay of Islands, he
had received accounts from New South Wales, which
showed that troops had been sent for to Sydney in order
to repress them. He denied that the Governor had not
sufficiently vindicated the honour of the British flag, and
also that he had made inquiry respecting sortie former
outrages only from the murderers themselves. On the
contrary, the Governor had made inquiry among those
who complained of the outrages, and was now exposed to
much obloquy from them, because he would not listen to
the suggestions of their hostile feeling. On the other
subjects of interrogation he had no information to com-
municate. He conclided by calling attention to the fact,
that either inferentially or directly, Mr. Aglionby had at-
tacked everything that had been done by the Government
in New Zealand.
The motion, with a little alteration, was then agreed to.
Mr. CRAWFORD then brought on his motion relative
to the introduction of the New Poor Law into the Roch-
dale Union but it was lost by a majority of 59 to 16.