"TOO MANY COOKS, &c."

Evening Star, Issue 4119, 10 May 1876, Page 4

"TOO MANY COOKS, &c."

To the Editor,

Sir,— lt seems to me, between abolition ftnd party feeling, that the ensuing session of the General Assembly of New Zealand will be remembered as long as the Maori war. I was much struck on reading the monthly summary of the * Guardian ’ newspaper. . I cannot imagine what the people of Great Britain and Ireland think of the elap-trap amongst those dignataries of state in the Colonies. The Executive of the day tries its best to procure the ways and means for themselves and friends while in power, and if their tenure of office will not allow them sufficient time to accomplish the deed satisfactorily their successors must take the onus upon themselves. This can be seen clearly from the proceedings of the Waste Land Board a few days ago. The people’s friend the Provincial Secretary, Mr Reid, is getting it hot from “ The Man in the Street ” for attempting to sell large blocks of land to the land-sharks of Otago; but no doubt that gentleman did so under pressure, in order to settle heavy liabilities incurred by his predecessors—that “ Octagon Government,” of which Messrs Turnbull and Bastings were heads. I fear now that the hitherto infallible member for the Taieri has found out that he has sinned grossly when he stepped into his Eredecessors multifarious blunders, before e finds money for the due completion of the several Provincial railways throughout the Province ere they are finished, and as only the thin edge of the wedge of expenditure got an entrance into the legal crack, and, for the want of money and other shortcomings, it may take years before it can be driven through. How painful it must be to the feeling of the hon. member for the Taieri if he has to resort to Sir Julius Vogel for aid and assistance to keep up the credit of Otago, and really, if such be the case, it will be a humble - pie for our mighty Province to swallow. lam not a politician, but I read and hear what wise men say, therefore I may use an old familillr proverb, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” Had we fewer changes in our petty Government, both Provincial and General, the country would be better off and further advanced, politically and socially. Even our public works are a disgrace, no job of any magnitude can be settled without recourse to law or costly arbitrations ever since the Provinces started. We remember the waterworks and the Port Chalmers Railway. Those contracts cost double the money originally tendered for. Surely our engineers are only visionary in their ideas, or else to allow some one or other to make a capital of it. Thanks to Messrs Tewsley and M'Kinnon for preventing another gigantic undertaking without much foundation. The Harbor Board’s Eng’neer’s estimate, at first, was more than the rovince could afford, but the Gordon estimate was considered outrageous, until the generous go between estimate of our enterprising undertakexs, Messrs Proudfoot and Smyth, solved the problem of what might be expected in round numVers. If this harbor was to cost L 860,000 at the first set-off, no doubt it would extend by the schedule of E rices before the works would be considered nished—at the ratio 'of some of the above ** quoted jobs ” at least three millions. So endeth the first reading. An insertion will oblige.—l am, &c., Waterman.