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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 120, 21 May 1872, Page 2

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir,—There is a rumor afloat that our Provincial Councillors have passed an Act to exempt all the employees of the Government (and their name is legion) General and Provincial, from tbeir liability to pay the tolls at the various Tollgates in the Province both present and future. Can you inform the public if there is any truth in this rumor ? I cannot think it possible that any body of men can. be so lost to shame as to legislate tor themselves in the barefaced manner alluded to, making them a privileged class, at the expense of the body politic. What reason can they adduce that they should be freed from the general burdens ? Do they not use the roads ? Are they paid so meagrely that they cannot afford the threepence toll when they ride their hobby horse to take the air ? Is their work of such great importance that it constitutes them a superior class, to lay burdens upon the slaves which they won't touch with their little fingers ? And why is it that the guardians of the public liberty—the Press —have not reported this infamous piece of legislation, and protested against it too ? The public rely upon the watchfulness of the Press to protect them from such insiduous attempts, on the part of our legislators, to burden them more heavily (for it comes to that) that they may go fre* 1 I am,'&c, 1 Alarm. [The following is !the clause alluded to by our correspondent:—-"Any officer of the Provincial or General Governments, travelling on the public service, shall be exempt from the payment of tolls." — Ed. N. E.M.y'-