EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 174, 8 May 1869, Page 4

EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —Allow me through your columns to draw the public attention to a needless piece of extravagance on the part of the Government. I allude to the news in the telegrams of your issue of the ***fch ult., that during the stay of H.H. H. the Duke of Edinburgh in Wellington there were 300 Maoris receiving Government rations. lam far from grudging the other money spent to give H.R.H. a loyal reception, but that so many Maoris should be fed at the public expense, while the Colony is so heavily loaded with debt, seems to me a monstrous piece of extravagance hard to be reconciled with the present Government’s great professions of retrenchment. It is known to those who have resided in the North Island that the Maoris as a rule have plenty of money, and are quite able to pay for their own board and lodgings when they go to town. I expect some people will cavil at these remarks, and say that it is a good way to make the natives more loyal, I doubt it; for though some rebels may have been amongt the 300, i is only softsoaping them—a return to the old flour and sugar policy that has been so disastrous to New Zealand—whereas, considering the news that is continually coming of fresh murders and massacres of helpless women and children by the rebels, the policy towards them ought to be one of powder and shot, which, if properly carried out, would soon end the war, and give the Colony a chance to recover from the burdens that are now dragging it downwards. I hope that during the coming session of the Assembly this and sundry other extravagances will be enquired into, and a sweeping real financial reform take place, not a make believe, as formerly— only altering the name of an old expense.—l am, &c., Economy. Peloros Sound, April 28th, 1859.