THE Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 22, 1880. A POLITICAL UPAS.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 73, 22 September 1880, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 22, 1880. A POLITICAL UPAS.

" Words aro things, aad a drop *>( ink falling iike ci.vy upon a thought, preduoas tlvnt which makes thousands, perhaps millions think."

Fito^r tho first advent to office of the Hall Admistration their very respiratiou had a blighting effect upon all aud everything that was brough. iuto contact with them, and their whole political career has left a track behind it strewn with victims which have fallen under their upas-like influence. The economical screw which was brought to bear upon the unfortunate Civil Servants caused weeping and wailing, if not gnashing of teeth, from oue end of the land to the other, but the pruning knife of the pseudo-Keforiners did not stop at individuals, for although hitherto it had beeu supposed that County aud Borough Councils and Local Boards were in that happy condition of having neither " bodies to be kicked uar souls to be saved," yet Messrs. Hall, and Co. found a weak place in their armor, and struck at them through their subsidies. They, have joined the general Jeremiad, and execrate the day which placed such despotic power in the hauds of such unscrupulous administrators. No doubt if a plebiscite of the colony taken as to the condemnation of the executive policy of the Ministry each district would be vieiug with the other in making their voice the louder, but we question if there be any locality which has such real good grounds for complaint as the West Coast of the North Island. In common vvith the rest of the colony these settlers have to meet the very serious consequences of the withdrawal of the subsidies, but their grievances by no means end with that unjust step. They are the losers of thousands by the abolition of the twenty per cent, from the sale of land ; the West Coast Eailway, which has been promised by successive Ministries, has been indefinitely huug up, if not shelved altogether ; an effort is being made to deprive them of their daily postal communication with the capital ; aud, as if the cup of bitterness which they have been made to sup had not been sufficiently- full, a blow has now been aimed at the local Public Library. As, no doubt, all our readers ape a^vare, the Pa.merston Public Library has been established under the Public Libraries Subsidies Act, 1877, which guarantees to districts w,hich rate themselves for the maintenance of such institutions, a gra,nt of .§ per £ upon the amount so collected as a library rate. Upon the good faith of that Act, and the subsidies so secured, the people of Palmerston unanimously vo'ted the Act into operation,, but to our disgust we learn from the To.wn Clerk that upon the receipt of the gubsidies for February and March, there was an accompanying memo, from Mr. Hisloi?. to the effect that no appropriation haying been made for Public Libraries this year, no further payments could be made under that heading^ It was. the. opinion of some that to discontinue the Bubsidy the Public Libraries Subsidies Act, 1877, would have to be. repealed, and as that course was. not taken last Session, hope was entertained that the grant was sate. Unfortunately, however, such is, not the case, as by the non-appropriation of the money, of course the, smbsidies could not be and tb& results

be exactly the same as if the iVct were repealed, with this . difference, however, that although this year the grant may bo lost to the institution, united action might secure it next year. We have made some inquiries as to the result of the last phase of economy on tho part of the Government, and wo find that the num? ber of institutions \yhu*li are brought uuder the above Act is so small that the savin -r to the colony will be considerably less than £100 a year. Considering the enormous sum devoted to education, and remembering that public libraries and reading rooms are about the very best accessories to self improvement, it must be admitted that the conduct of the Ministry of Retrogression has been thoroughly consistent, and that all their efforts have beeu directed to retard rather thau advance progress.