The Dunstan Times, FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1868.

Dunstan Times, Issue 318, 29 May 1868, Page 2

The Dunstan Times,

FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1868.

Beneath the Rule of Men entirely just

the penis mightier than the sword.

Tns Estimates, as prepared by Mr. Vogel, the late Provincial Treasurer, will, notwithstanding they have heen unfavorably received by the Council, be in the main carried out by the new Executive. The estimated revenue for the year ending the 31st March, 1869, is £330,500, of which sum the mining community are expected to contribute, in the shape of .special taxation, no less that £28,500. As we undoubtedly must submit to be mulcted in this large and exceptional amount, it is quite natural that we should make some inquiries as to the

special advantages we are to receive in return; for it must be distinctly understood that, besides thus contributing by a direct tax upon our labor, we, in common with all other inhabitants of the province, by our consumption of dutiable articles, are required to still make up our proportion of the revenue. Glancing over the estimates we find that our money is to be returned, or rather expended, in the following manner :—£9,000 is set apart for the e cpeuses of goldfields management, a rather large sum for special expenditure in keeping in order such a wellbehaved community as that residing on the goldfields, where the services of one policiman are sufficient to preserve the peace among every five hundred of the inhabitants. £9,000 appears therefore something enormous for the mere administration of the law, and, when we come to consider that all this amount is to be expended upon the payment of the salaries of the Wardens, Clerks, and Receivers of Revenue, there is much need for retrenchment. Surely a great deal of money might be saved by an amalgamation of offices, and more profitably expended in assisting the development of our mineral resources than in keeping up an army of officials, whose time cannot possibly be employed. We have now some intelligent young men engaged at our telegraph stations, who could easily perform, in conjuncjunction with their duties, the office of Receiver of Revenue, and even that of Postmaster might be included, and then they would not by any means be hard-worked. There is no reason why the business of the country should not be as economically conducted as were it a private establishment, and, when we consider that paltry sums for the building of highly necessary bridges to keep up communication between various parts of the goldfields are not forthcoming out of the revenue, but must be obtained through the means of loans, a vigorous application of the pruning knife in the Goldfields Department could, with an immense amount of advantage, be made. Grants in aid £6,500, for Clyde, Tuapeka, and Queenstown Hospitals, including the payment of arrears, is a pretty liberal sum. The grants in aid are, however, set down this time at the rate of £2 for £1 upon subscriptions received. This, notwithstanding what has been said to the contrary, should really be sufficient. It always was so till lately, and circumstances warrant us in asserting that, were it necessary for the Government to pay as much in the shapo of subsidy as £3 to £l, they might as well take the management of the Hospitals over to themselves, and entirely support them, as is the case with Dunedin. In thinly populated districts, such as the Wakatip for instance, a special grant, when a good reason for such couid be shown, might be made; but at Clyde and Tuapeka, the benevolence of a rich and populous mining community should surely extend so far as to defray one-third of the expense of maintaining an establishment to relieve the necessities of the suffering portion of its inhabitants. For roads upon goldfields, for new works, it is proposed to expend the insignificant sum of £6,450, divided thus—£2,ooo, Teviot to Alexandra ; £I,OOO, Tuapeka to Teviot; £550, Cromwell to Nevis ; Tuapeka to Tapanui, £4OO ; Tuapeka to Switzer's, £2,000; Eweburn to Manuherikia, £SO ; roads in L the neighborhood of Waipori, £450. Out of this little amount the Tuapeka district gets the lion's share ; the northern goldfields absolutely nothing, thanks to the negligence of our members, whose whole and sole attentions are devoted to party strife. For repairs of existing roads, including the building of 1 ridges over the Manuherikia, at Black's, and the Shotover, at Forster's Ferry, which are to cost£B,ooorespectfully, £25,000 it is proposed shall be expended. The divisions are thus : Tuapeka to Teviot, £1,600; Dunstan to Cromwell, £25" ; Cromwell to Queenstown, £1,500; Teviot to Alexandra, £1,000; Eweburn to Manuherikia, £350 ; Alber-

ton to Cardrona, £l5O ; Queenstcwn to Maori Point and Skipper's, £4OO ; Cromwell to Nevis, £IOO ; West Coast Track, via Haast River, £2OO ; Tuapeka to Switzer's, £1,000; Hyde to Kyeburn, £IOO ; Waihemo to Macrae's, £2OO ; and £2OO, Gabriel's to Blue Spur. There is also an item under the head miscellaneous, and which appears to us rather ambiguous, £2,000, roads and bridges on gold fields. The cost of bridging the Shotover and Manuherikia it is proposed shall be dependant upon a loan, if authorised by the General Government, if not, out of revenue ; but no provision is made for such an expeti diture, so that in case of the failure of the proposed loan, the execution of these highly necessaiy works will be almost indefinitely postponed. For repairs of bridges it is proposed to expend : Waitahuna Bridge, £7OO ; Gentle Annie, £3OO ; Roaring Meg, £':00; Kawarau, £7O ;Shotover, above Maori Point, £7o—making a total of £1,190. Under the bending Works and Buildings on Goldfields, the estimated expenditure is £l,llO, divided thus: additions to Tuapeka Hospital, £300; Survey offices, Clyde and Queenstown, £280; Goldfields buildings, £500; bell buoy, Queenstown, £3o—making the grand total of goldfields expenditure £49,000. This sum, at first sight, would appear a large and liberal one ; but such is really not the case, and when we come to deduct £IO,OOO for bridges across the Manuherikia and Shotover rivers (which really cannot be termed goldfields works, they being on the main trunk line of road through the province, and would require to be be made even were there no goldfields in existence), then we may further deduct a sum of £3,000 for the repairs of main truuk lines of road (which are also again not necessarily goldfields works), and only £31,000 becomes strictly chargeable to us, out of which we contribute by special taxation £28,500; so that, in reality, £1,500 is all that is to be returned to the goldfields as our share of the revenue derived from ordinary sources. We arc still, however of opinion that, if we were to go more minutely into the matter, that, after the payment of all outlays, there would actually re main a profit to the province from special taxation alone. As the consumption of dutiable articles upon the goldfields is neces sarily very large— more than the average of other districts—it would be nothing unreasonable but to expect, considering that we are purely a self supporting community, a much larger expenditure of the revenue for our especial benefit than is proposed by the estimates. Say, for instance, a subsidy for any large undertaking, where the benefits would be manifold, such as to increase the supply of water to the miners, with the guarantee of a certain rate of interest upon expenditure for a limited period. This would do a great deal towards setting new undertakings afloat. The principle is successfully adopted inAmerica with regard to the construction of railways through unoccupied country, where the land is of no value to the State, nor can population settle upon it, for the want of a means to send their produce to a market. The assistance thus given to the railway companies renders the land valuable, and the result is that the State profits indirectly very extensively by the outlay. The same principle is applicable in our case with respect to waterraces. They are essentially necessary to the production of gold, and by water-races alone can we ensure the supply of the precious metal. Every new undertaking of this description largely adds to the means of employing the people, and the land, instead of being a barren waste—for an Otago sheep walk is little better—becomes a hive of busy industry. We fancy that we might, with some truth, affirm that a course of action so beneficial to the extension of the railway system in America would be equally so with regard to the development <.•:" the mineral resources of Otago. It is to the interest of all lhat the

revenue should be economically and wisely expended, and it also behoves each separate section of the community to secure their fair share of its dis bursement. The dwellers upon the goldfields, as we have previously said, contribute a much larger proportion than any other inhabitants of the province, and they are consequently entitled to more consideration. An old saying has it, and it is quite applicable in our case, " You may ride a willing horse to death." If the present policy is persisted in, the Provincial Government will soon be in the difficult position of the old lady who, by her impatience and thirst for gain, "killed the goose which laid the golden egg."