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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1440, 13 March 1873, Page 2

The County Chairman, on Tuesday night, gave the usual notice of the introduction of the Appropriate n Bill, and intimated that the prorogation will take place on Wednesday next. Prior to appropriating the sums placed on the Estimates, it would not be inappropriate for the Council, if it desires to be just and logical, to recommit and reconsider some of the items which are insignificant in amount, yet significant of considerable absence o? logical reasoning on the part of the members. A. case in point is the basis on which they have struck the salaries of the Harbor Department. It ia amusingly anomalous, resulting in the official at the port which, out of the several ports on the West Coast, enjoys the maximum traffic, having his remuneration reduced to a minimum, as compared with his colleagues. On the basis of tonnage alone, the ar-

rangement should be exactly reversed, and there is nothing in other local circumstances to justify the contrast. At Westport, where the tonnage varies from 200 to 300 tons per quarter, the " economical " Province of Nelson pays its Harbor Master £300 per year. At Hokitiua the tonnage is nigh 5000 per quarter, and the work more irksome, but the salary the same, while at Greymouth, with an equal, and often greater tonnage, an invidious distinction is made. The logic of the tiling ia invisible. <