TAXPAYERS AND PUBLIC SERVANTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 12, 24 May 1872, Page 2

TAXPAYERS AND PUBLIC SERVANTS.

To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir — I was very glad at Mr. Saunders' meeting the other night to hear the question put by Mr. Haddow respecting Government officers when in receipt of a good salary beiDg allowed to conduct a private business and I consider it most unjust in principle and very unfair to other tradesmen not so fortunately situated. It is pretty well known to whom he had reference, at any rate in this City there is a gentleman who has long been in receipt of a good salary, holding an important public office, who has just opened a business, a retail shop in one of our principal streets, behind the counter of which he is to be seen at all reasonable hours of the day. The question that suggests itself to one is either that the officer in question has been too well paid out of the bitterly wrung taxes from the pockets of this over-taxed community or that the duties must be neglected. It is understood that our late highlyesteemed Resident Magistrate was compelled to resign his well-appreciated public services in consequence of entering into a commercial enterprise where his personal or active services 'were not engaged. ' i Surely there is sufficient cause to enquire " why these things be." I am, &c, Tax Pater. To the Editor ot tub Nelson Evening Mail. ; Sir,— -The letter of "A Citizen ." in ; your paper last night requires a word of i explanation. The extract given is frora r my address i to the Provincial Council in April, 1868, . i a year after the date referred to, in the < previous correspondence. At this : time < the £12,000 deposited by Mr. Saunders < still remained in the Bank, but as the 1 Provincial overdraft was nearly £10,000 i there was only some £20p6 or £3000 c to our credit. ....- 1 I proposed to the Council to appropriate r the £12,000 towards the construction of a c Dock, and* to'save and repay the £10,000 c overdraft from the revenues of the coming I year,, the .expenditure proposed by me a being £10,000 "less ; than ' the estimated a revenue, so that, as I ; expressed myself I in' the passage quoted by your cprroß- c pondenr, p thie $qr ; k •coujd" Jj'^" ! ' ; « £arrie_l -out b with fund's"* at our command withouY 'in- a stirring either deibt' or iliability."H l "'* j The Provincial debt I stated as o BHM^ - _

£21,500, tbe amount to be provided for by the Council whom I was addressing from Provincial funds; the £20,000 for Waterworks having to be provided for by by the City of Nelson. As regards our relations with other Provinces, and the Colony as a whole, the Provincial debt was, and still is, £41,500 as the whole is chargeable in the first instance on Provincial funds. Our provincial debt is stated in the Public Debts Act as £49,000, but £7500 of that sum being chargeable against the Province of Marlborough, the correct amount is £41,500 as stated in my previous letter. I have been led, in refuting Mr. Saunders' charges against me as a member of the Assembly, into a discussion bearing upon provincial administration, which I trust to be able to close, so far as I'- am concerned, with this letter. I am, &c, Oswald Curtis. Nelson, 24th May.

The Auckland correspondent of tbe Lyttelton Times says :— "Mr. Yogel has received a magnificent series of engravings representing scenes in America. It is said that they were presented by the Government of the United States, and were forwarded per last mail." "The retorting of the enormous mass of gold, (over 5,000 ounces) recently obtained from 16 tons of stone taken from Grohman's claim, on Hawkins-hill, Tambaroora, was," the Sydney Morning Herald -says, " an operation requiring no small ingenuity. The gold actually filled what is known in the iron trade as a * 15in retort.'.] To get it out of the vessel after being retorted was therefore a task of considerable difficulty. The following method was adopted with success : — Keys, or wedgeß of gold, were placed perpendicularly in, the retort at intervals, so that there remained small spaces between them. The amalgam was then put in and retorted in the usual way, the keys remaining, of course, untouched. In the openings made by these keys a crowbar was inserted, and the monster cake was thus easily lifted out of the vessel." A member of the N. S. W. Parliament has given notice of motion that the cake and specimens of gold from Krohman's claim be purchased by the Government and sent home for exhibition. A Sarcastic Picture is drawn by a New York journal of the effects that may be. expected to follow in Japan, if tbat empire should be induced by the represent tations of its ambassadors to remodel its institutions on the pattern of the highest type of Western civilisation as existing in the United States., Perhaps that ancient nation is not now iD all respects a model empire, but to what a condition, it is asked, will it sink when " the Japanese Parliament orders that the Mikado shall appoint only his relatives to office ; that he shall spend half his time at a fashionable watering place, and shall consider his duties to be comprehended in the cultivation of dogs and horses, the consumption J of cigars, and the reception of presents ? What will become of Japanese commerce when laws are passed establishing a tariff designed expressely to drive the Japanese flag from the Eastern seas ; and where will be the business of Yokohama and Hakodadi when Custom-houses are established at those ports under the charge of men required by law to levy blackmail upon Japanese merchants ? What nation will consent to hold diplomatic intercouse with Japan when the Mikado shall have searched the gaols of Yeddo for the worst criminal of the empire in order to make him Minister tb Spain, ahd advertised for a bully and blackguard who will be willing to act as Japanese Consul- General to Egypt ? And what will be the opinion of the world upon Japanese home government when the most worthless fellows in the northern half of the empire shall have been made governors over the southern provinces once in revolt against the Mikado ? " A satirical view is then given of the commotion that will be produced in Japanese female society when the Princess returns with a finished American education, and commences, in accordance with what she has seen in the States, to devote herself to addressing mass meetinge of the woman of Yeddo, and agitating in favor of free divorce as the right of every Japanese woman. In conclusion, the hope is expressed that the Japanese will exercise a wise discrimination, and by taking back with ithem only the memory of the good they find, place Japan on the road to a true civilization and a permanent national greatness. An important contribution to the already vast body of literature on railway construction is contained in the report of the Queensland Royal Commission on this subject lately presented.^ The feature in the report that is most likely to strike Victorian readers is, that tbe Commissioners seem to have mainly directed their investigations to the question of the advisability of narrowing the existing gauge, although that gauge ou Queensland railways is- only a 3ft. 6in. one. In the various discussions on the subject of gauge in this colony 3ft. 6in. has been generally regarded as the minimum, all below that being looked upon as impracticable and purely speculative. But not only has the question of reducing tbis limit been entertained in Queensland and fairly considered by the commissioners, but now in their report they pronounce in favor of a narrower one, and for certain extensions of their railway system! which they advise they recommend that the gauge adopted should- be 2ft. 9in., and that some of the existing lines should be altered to conform, to this, and so avoid a break of gauge. In discussing !'the matter in detail they refer to the fact that the Commissioners; in- India, with one -exception,, recommend this gauge, and. say that they consider the reasons oh ;wh.ich that recommendation was 'fqunded '. conclusive. One ; contrafoory " wtiosW ' eVidence *Was taken, ; estimated tbF&vuig; of '"^ft. 8* gauge

over one of 3ft. 6in. at £1,500 per mile. In additiou, they advise that on the light lines thus constructed the rolliug stock should also be as light, simple, and inexpensive as is compatible with safely and efficiency, with a limited speed, the rolling-stock at present in use to be confined to lines on which the gauge of 3ft. 6in. is maintained. Worked by very light engines, with a pressure not exceeding 2\ tons, on any wheel, aud capable of taking loads of 30 tons up the ruling gradients, they estimate that with one train daily each way, the traffic would be equal unnually to 9,000 tons, or with four trains daily each way to 36,000 tons, which is about 50 percent, more than the' total present traffic cf the Southern and Western line.