WELLINGTON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 33, 16 December 1879, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(FROM OUtt OWX COBBEBPONDENT.) -+ PUBLIC WOBKB ES'iIMATB The Public Works hstimates have been circulated. They provide for the expenditure of a most startling sum, upwards of £4 ; 000,000, divided as follows :— Immigration .. .. £157,968 Public Works, Departmental 16,212 Railways, construction . . 2,308,000 Surveys of new lines . . 20.908 Bonds 300,810 Water races ... . . 39,883 Miscellaneous Public Works 239,81 2 Public Buildings aud Hospi - tills 226,162 Expeusi 8 raising loan . . 50,0 ! JO Telexiaph extension ... 70,250 Lighthouses .. .. 6,150 School buildings .. .. 181, 000 Lund purchase*, and roada to open up same . . . . 201,421 Contingent defence .. 140,000 £3,959,278 No one doubts but what the expenditure is all needed, sooner or later, and lots more besides ; but such proposals, in thp face of what wo have been told as to the financial condition of the country, and in the face of a plege given by the loan agents in London to the effect that the Colony will not come to the London mun«y nnrkot again for three yaara, are enough to stagger ouc. Major Atkinson, iv his Financial Statement, dwelt largely upon the extravagant expenditure of the late Government, and said that it would be the business of the present Administration to confine the expenditure witltin proper limits, and yet his colleague,' the Public Works Minister, but two or three weeks afterwards comes down with such proposals as these. And, moreover, this huge expenditure cannot all be luid to the charge of Mr Macandrew's extravagance, for the statement shews us that the expends tuvo for the first quarter of this year, and all tho liabilities current at that date, amounted to £2,35*,7i9 only, thus leaving the very respectable sum of £1,602,547 for Mr Oliver's manipulation during but little more than six months. If the new Minister succeeds in disposing of this sum, he bids fair to eclipso even Mr Macandrew. LOCAL ITEMS. There are a few items of local interest, which may as well be particularised. They are as follow :— Wellington-Foxton line of railway (including £15,000 for Foxton wharf and station) JE55.000 Greatford to Bulls branch .. 6,000 Extension of Taonni branch to the Feilding-Ashhursfc road 3,000 lloads in Kairanga District.. 5,«.'00 „ Kiwitea Block . . 1,400 „ Foxton to Otaki . . 2,632 Kirere road „ . . 300 Refund of deductions on account of Gorge Road . . 450 Court House at Feilding .. 200 Post Office at Halcorabe . . 300 And besides these, there isja nice little item of £60,000 for roads in North Island, of which Manawatu may get a share if only its representatives and local authorities are sufficiently importunate. KAIVARBA CONTItAOT. The Kaiwarra contract is not to be gone on with, we are told, because it is principally for reclamation, which can very well stand over for a while. But a station is required for Wellington at any rat?, reclamation or no reclamation, and now is the pro* per time for our townspeople ,aud civic authorities to igitate again as to the station site. What is wanted, and what we ahull huve to iueist on ultimately, is a thoroughly good station at Te Aro, and as we are bound io have it in the end wo may as well have it now, before thousands of pounds have been spent in paltry makeshifts at Thorndon. The Te Aro Reclamation Bill if not out of the Council yet, and the Government should have a clause inserted, giving them power to take any area they please of the now reclamation for railway purposes, paying cost price for what they use. A first* class station at Te Aro, and the present stopping-place at Thorndon, would settle the question once and for all. CITr TaAMWAY. I have told you before that things arnot looking well with the Tramway Company just now, but still I did not expect to see an extraordinary meeting of shareholders called to consider the advisability of winding the concern up so quickly. Such is the case, however, but it remains to be seen whether the proposition will meet with general acceptance or not. However, if the company is wound up, and the whole concern sold to a new company at somewhere about half the price the present company paid for it, they will stand a very good chance of working the thing successfully.