THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 174, 8 May 1869, Page 3

THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —The coming week will, I presume, witness the repetition of the same pompous farce which has been periodically enacted in the Government Buildings, and the representatives of our poor moribund province will once more assemble to deliberate on the disposal of its magnificent revenue in such mode as shall be most satisfactory to all those who have so long partaken of the sweets without at all burdening themselves with the toils of office. ■

I begrudge no man the just recompense of hia work —believing that the laborer is worthy, of hia hire—but for the life of me I cannot understand why a province in the last throes of dissolution, aud suffering from the direst impecuniosity, should be paying £4OO a year to a functionary whose salary, by his own public avowal, is more than expended on his search for amusement, because he has n ithing else to occupy his time ; or £IOO a year to another official for acting as guardian of a Treasury, the coffers of which have been emptjr ftr many a long month, and which seem likely to remain in the same unhappy state for a very'indefinite period. 1 say nothing of the Speakership, and other sinecures of a similar nature which might easily be pointed out. Surely the “ new bloods” in the Council, of whom so many hopeful prophecies have been uttered, will not permit this scandal on our community to be perpetuated, and—although ours be one of the “smaller provinces” which the ai'rrinco, acting in obedience to the dicta of the powers that be at Wellington, has not deigned to visit—will see that its present pitiful revenue is not frittered away in keeping up this miserable display of governmental imbecility, whilst so many public works are crying aloud for such imperatively necessary repairs as may protect the lives of travellers throughout the Province from the grevious perils to which they are now daily exposed. Trips to W ellington, varied by occasional excursions to the Hutt, Johnstouville, Charlottbville, Howe’s Farm, and other charming environs of the Empire City, are all very well in their way, but if the administrators of this province are in earnest, aud really at a loss to discover what objects most demand their care aud attention within its boundaries, I would recommend them to take a trip, just by way of variety, overland to Nelson, or in this direction, and L pledge you my word that they would find abundant food for cogitation whilst making their weary way across the many dangerous bridges, &c., which they would encounter on thejormer road ; or whilst crossing the numerous fords of the Taylor, or surmounting the heights of Taylor’s Pass, especially after the late heavy rains. Let ns hope that the present session will offer a decided contrast to its predecessors—that the members of. Council will do their duty fearlessly and impartially—aud that a wise economy, tempered with justice to those who really do the work of the Province, will characterise .the deliberations of our legislative body in the coming session. Nona verrona- —I am, &c., , Kaikora. April 29th, 1869. P.S.—I ara confident that should the “ sinews of war” be found wanting for the purposes to which I have especially alluded—aud we know that “every little makes a muckle”—the gentleman who has just turned informer, (doubtless solely with the laudable intent to protect her Majesty’s interests in this Province), would gladly add his moiety of the fine inflicted on the offender to swell the funds at the disposal of tho Council. Judging from my previous knowledge of his illustrious family, I am confident they would view with the deepest abhorence any mean or selfish act on the part of their relatives ; aud ,1 believe that such a solution of the difficulty which, as it would seem, the gentleman in question has experienced in disposing of thin unm,

vrould ba altogether consonant with their antecedents and wishes. The absurd rumour which has reached this distant region to the effect that the sum alluded to has been devoted to the defrayal of his expenses at the late Nelson Races, .(including gloves lost in bets to ladies, giblet pies, and ingratiating nobblers for the officers of Galatea), I treat as a scandalous libel, characteristic of the envy with which the virtues of such exalted members of the governing class are too often regarded. K.