TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 276, 19 June 1874, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

The Government railway resolutions, thrown down higgledy-piggledy before •thei Council, have at length been carried, with trifling amendments, after strenuous opposition. The whole scheme was and, indeed, is contingent upon the sanction, by the General Government, of a half million loan. To induce the General Government to consent to tin's, the Province oifers to set aside all the revenues, however Jhey may be derived—whether by lease or sale—from over two million acres of land* The Provincial Secretary affects to believe that this loan will be sanctioned, if confined to branch railway construction. The Otago .'JtorfmbeWiof the Assembly FoV^he ! y?,st part ridicule the idea altogether. Probably it is a speculative card thrown forward by Mr.'Donald Beid, M.H;E., to ascertain whether it may not draw a sign, or be one indicative of prospective changes' in' the policy, and probably, the construction, of the General Government of the future Parliament. 4.t\is generally known that the impeeuiiiosity of the Northern Provinces .faHlfoVce ntWnf'irtVi this ensuing session in Wellington. The Provinces t areviTiHhe>possession "of fine estates, but ydt are Unable'lto encumber their properties, with further liabilities, for verv thiit these same tfWperties, already to ia greater or .extent rendered liable for Colonial debts. The Premier last year saw this clearly; > and shawdowed out, in the Provincial Loanp "Bill, the remedy f"om his point of view. This, like many true' remedies', was nauseous, and My,. v Vogel gladly' threw the respbnsibility of rejecting bis specific' upon the He-, presentatives themselves,, knowing q.uifAwell that it was,only I rtnd that when again it, cropped Up he would get the credit bf having foreseen and attempted to forestall the dilemma, it'cati hardly be thought? but that this session the position mtist b9 looked straight iti the ffipe The problem ap— staled,,simply.: How can tne Provinces he avowed to borrow] money in sufficient sums to enable j them to carry on RtrieHv Provincial public works without, at the snme time, depreciating Colonial securities? The old 'sow requires so njuch, what are the 1 little Reaped pigs to do? If <>tago is allowed to borrow half a million of money, Wellington and Auckland would have to get their half million apiece as well, not to speak of the other Provinces. 'The difficulty is an extreme o.ie, and no doubt the reniedy; when.it comes, will be a strong'one alfio! "Knowing there will'be a shuffling, of the pack, we can the better understand, if- not appreciate, Mr. EeidV sudden conversion from a position of extreme prudence to one of the moat j advanced outposts of the policy of pro-, gres*. We shall, in a future issue, take, up these resolutions on their merits—assuming that they are intro--duced hovafide, as no doubt ultimately the .railways proposed will be constructed. In the meantime we watch wfth interest for the outcome to' result' from the bold, forward play df Mr. Eeid. '

Messbs. , ( tf. GouniEx and J. Lewi, undertake to bury the provincial Government !—'Whether 'the''present or thelate we are not told. If the late, their deeds do sadly need burying 1 , and we commend Messrs. Gourley and Lewi,,accordingly; for their spirijsed' effort. Mr. "Reid tried hard to do Mt; and was beaten—on everv side the objectionable telios cropped up 1 . ' First,' tbe'' Ifrttf nc; of the .railway contractsafjer itfie financial year had closed,,and committing the Province to; an expen-' dfruje.of over £MO,OOO, againßt the resolution of the Council—this cer-tainly-is better buried out of sight. Then the -sale to Col. Kitchener and Co. of land at Palmeratoril. which was ordered by the Council to be reserved onie day after the last session broke up —"this, too, is uirly, and can only be: bid.by. leeal ability raining a quibble as to-the'- regularity of the Waste Landts Committee's report, sustained by Mr. Speaker; to the; temporary burking 6f a djiestfon that has life enough to rise ag'aih .'in spite of. the—in this case; — legal undertaker. Echoes of the blunder by which Captain Mackenzie benefitted, to the loss of the Provifnce of another thousand or two, strike us, as we write, of being the better under grqdnd. Oh, Messrs. Gourley and Leyi! adventurous men! you little know what you propose to do when yoitiiadvertise your ability to perform the duties of general undertakers, and claim support because you are "Undertakers to the Provincial Government. See advertisement in 'Evening Star,' June 18.

Ma. M'Kellxb. has at last consented to join the Government. When the Appropriation Bill h>d been, read a thircj time his accession was, announced. We have always, had a good word to say for Mr. M'Kellar, although his unwise defender in the ' I'romwell Argus' seems to think otherwise. From a Goldfields point of view we could not help condemning his action as shown by his votes this session. It would, be rather too much to ask us to approve of a member for the Kawarau supporting a preliminary vote of £IO,OOO for the Kakanui Harbor. Tt was bad enough to support the Dunedin and Oatnnru waste of money—but those works may hnve : ashndow of justification but to support Kakanui Harbor Works, eight miles from

Oamaru, and a main line of railway being constructed right through the • email township, was too much of a good thing. Fortunately the good sense of the Council defeated the Government and the member for JVtoeraki in this particular. in spjta of his somewhat servile following

of Mr. Beid, we do not hesitate to say that no better choice could hare been made for the now harmless and useless office of- Goldfields Secretary without a portfolio.

A QHEA.T argument for such works as that just referred to at Kakanui is that a private company—in this case a meat-preserving one has invested a considerable sum of money in the locality. Therefore the country is to find them, at the expense of the taxpayers, means of' carriage for their goods. The argument is not allowed to apply to 300 or 400 individuals who collectively in the interior, invest enough to buy a dozen such private companies. They have no claim for State aid to open-up communications' until all our private meat-preservingi companies l and 'coal-mitfe 'owners havej had railways made to * their door by!f he Government, and till fu'-tW,' were possible, "ftnvernn.ont airbori works ,to ( compete p with . railways'for the limited' produce"oWae; district: have : also;ibeen< 1 attempted. \ Pity the poor taxpayers of the future :j