THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1493, 17 May 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1873.

What are popularly known as "The Estimates," have already been placed before the Nelson Council, and the process of converting them into an Appropriation Act will, no doubt, be in due time proceeded with. It is, unfortunately, again a feature of the figures they contain that they do not much concern the SouthWest Gold Fields of the Province. In the pages relating to probable revenue, the Gold Fields items are certainly of some significance, as, exclusive of their share in the capitation allowance, land fund, and education rate,' and exclusive also of £9000 expected revenue from the Brunner coal-mine, it is calculated that gold duty and Gold Fields revenue alone will contribute £34,000 out of a total of ,£73,000. But the one briefp'age exhibiting the proposed expenditure on the Gold Fields presents an extraordinary contrast. Even supposing the expenditure should, contrary to all experience, be equal to the pretended proposals, the total expenditure upon ever description of work would not exceed .£12,000, and it is no injustice to anyone jto say that experience teaches us that the actual ! expenditure will probably not reach a third of that amount. If it should do so, the year will deserve to be recorded by red letters among the several years of the present administration of the South- West Gold Fields. • . Of the estimate of* probable revenue one highly objectionable feature is the repetition of the practice of calculating the revenue at much above what actual experience warrants. Last year the revenue only amounted to £63,000, but in the face of that fact, it is coolly calculated that for the current year the revenue wiU amount to £74,000. There is certainly no change in the circumstances of the Province to justify this expansion of hope, and it would be infinitely more prudent with any regard to the future, to strike the estimate of probable revenue at a lower figure. It will at any rate be more honest on trie part of those who have from I'd these Estimates to take some share of blame to themselves, should the reality fall short of their expectations, instead of blaming West Coast members of the Council for injudiciously increasing the appropriations. ■ ' ' In the departmental expenditure there are rid i : material' changes proposed, and certainly none in the direction of 'economy. The abolition of the office of < Treasurer is a pretended saving, but it really forms tbe excuse for increasing the Provincial Secretary's salary from .£4OO to £500, and the Superintendent's Clerk's salary to , £325, the latter being now flubbjed Provincial Accountant. As the Secretary nas several other emoluments, he cannot be said -to.' be an officer who is unappreciated or unfairly dealt with, compared with Provincial Secretaries in other parts of the Colony. The chief objection to this amalgamation of offices, however, is the fact of its being a practical resumption of the old close family system which was disturbed by the Council three years agoj with not the happiest results to some. In the clerical department it seems to be the intention to continue that valueless appointment "Inspector of Leases and Clerk ai Beefton," at £300, with another clerk at the same place at a salary of £200, but the intention is not likely to be sustained in Committee of Supply. To the police on the West Coast a concession is proposed to be made, not apparently in salary, but in title. There are to be two SubInspectors, a name more euphonious and hot more costly than that of Senior Constable, but the change fortunately does not involve Inspector Shallcrass being designated a Commissioner. Two objects upon which Nelson Province expends large sums of money— charity and education — are very worthy objects in themselves, but, in a new country, 'which should have large land revenues, and a thriving population, the amounts required for these objepts seem to be iassuming extravagant proportions. Under the head, pff 1 Charitable" £6500 are placed upon t these, Estimates, while' " Education 5 ' receives attention to the tune 70f,-£800G,;*: "• includes subsidies to hospitals, arid, managed as these institutions are by public committees, the amounts granted are not likely to be mdre than are absolutely required ; but the item of £1700 for the maintenance of destitute poor — an amount almost, if not exclusively dispensed in ithe settled districts-Tris one, which should •induce the residents .of thope districts to reflect as to whether they are altogether doing their duty in the matter of voluntary benevolence. Year after year it has been hinted to the residents of these districts that dependance upon the Government was drying . up the sources of charity, but it is seemingly preferred that that these sources should remain, dry so long as there is a convenient milch cow in the shape of the Provincial Government- The large amounts required for the hospitals should equally, in these cases, act, not as a deterrent, but as an inducement to the public to substitute popular for mere Government aid. The " Miscellaneous " items include an amount which 1 forms only a particle in an expenditure the propriety of which is Very questionable. That item is—-"ln-land Communication — preliminary expenses, £300." fts explanation, we suppose, is simply tins — that a body of gentlemen in Nelson — the leading citizens, &c.^are endeavoring— hopelessly, we doubt— to start a company to^con- • struct. a - railway to and in the interior, iand the Government is magnanimously 'paying every penny they expend. Thig may not only be magnanimous but com

mercially correct ; but what is sauce for the goose should be sauoe for the gander ; and we venture to ask — Would such liberality be shown to any promoters of a similar or any company at this end of the Province? Thus venturesome, we may also venture to give the answer, which is— Decidedly not. The promoters, like Mr J. D. Pinkerton, would probably be protested against as aliens. Briefly stated, the public works on the South-West Gold Fields, "proposed"— be it always remembered — "proposed" — are as follows : — Maintenance of roads and bridges, £3500 ; road, Hope to Inangahua Junction,. ,£3500 ; horse road, Lyell Creek, £400 ; horse road, Reefton to Black's Point, £350; dray road or tramway, Black's Point to head of Murray Creek, £1500 ; dray road to No Town, £200 ; foot tracks, £400 ; district roads, £500 ; streets, and local improvements, £680 ; FourrMile bridge, Charleston, £150; harbors, &c, £400; buildings, £1000 ; cemeteries, £200. Nothing is specifically said about the cemetery which is certain to become the receptacle of the majority of even these modest proposals, although people would naturally suppose that by this time it required enlargement. We shall probably find it, with other things more surprising, in the Supplementary Estimates.