COST OF GOVERNMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 127, 29 May 1872, Page 3

COST OF GOVERNMENT.

The Melbourne Leader, in the course of an article on the manner of the government of New Zealand, gives the following summary of the cost attendant thereon : — "First there is the General Government, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Representatives., with a real Governor at its head ; next there are nine Provincial Governments, possessing a chamber each called a Provincial Council, and that with a Superintendent, or miniature Governor, over it. The aggregate number of legislators in the various bodies in 1854 was 137, but it is now increased to 360, all having to be paid £l a day when attending to parliamentary, and 15s. For remainder of news see fourth page.

a day when attending to Provincial Council duties. Then there is the Governor with £6000 a year, and the Superintendents with their salaries of £600 to £1000 a year each ; to which we have also to add the Executives of the General and Provincial Governments, with salaries varying from £300 to £1000 a year, and allowances of £1 a day in the case of those in receipt of the higher named salaries, if away from the chief seat of government, which generally happens for nine months in the year. When the Constitution Act waß promulgated in 1853, the European population amounted to 31,000, and the expenditure to. £146,855,- or to nearly £4: lss.' per head. There was no public debt worth speaking of then. But what is the position of the Colony now ? With a population of 250,000, its expenditure, ■ chiefly :derrived from taxation, has increased to £1,640,000 ; and its public debt to £8j750,000 actual, and many more millions — there is no saying how many J :i — 4n prospect. New Zealand has the honor of being the heaviest taxed country .in the world. While the taxation in the United Kingdom is £2 85.2 d.; in Victoria, £4; in New Zealand it is nearly £7 per . head of population."

A Correspondent of a local paper calculates ; that the amount- annually expended in Auckland on " drinks '.'. its £9.5,000. ; " ' j Invercargill, according to [be South- \ land Times, " can, now boast of an accom- ! plished burglar, as an additional variety of local talent." Thk London correspondent of the Leeds Mercury says the postal authorities have now under their consideration an invention by which the handwriting of persons telegraphing a message will be transmitted by the telegraph. Regarding (he bets on the Tichborne case, Bell's Life says : — " In reply to a large number of correspondents who have submitted to our decision bets on the result of the cause celebre, we have to state that in every case, whtre, eithor the claimant or defendant was backed to obtain a verdict, the bets are off." :\ Last week, says the Otago Daily Times > a few Highlanders who deplore the condition of many of their countrymen, many of whom are in indigent circum stances, met privately, and it was thought desirable to send a memorial to the General Government, praying for (he same con^ ditions being granted to poor Highlanders as to Scandinavians. It was also suggested that a Highland Society be formed for the purpose of ren k-riujr assistance in clothing, and defraying their expenses to tfae port of embarkation.