The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1873.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 123, 23 May 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1873.

The Committee appointed to inquire into the departmental expenditure, whose report *we published yesterday, has done good service, since the result of its labors has been to show that there is not that extravagance which some people had seemed to believe. The Committee consisted of three or four experienced members of the Council — oue of whom is looked upon as the great financial reformer of the Provincial legislature, before whose keen eye not a sixpence would pass unexamined — and two young members burning with zeal, and ready and eager to win their spurs in the ever popular field of retrenchment. With such a Committee it may be easily imagined tbat every possible reduction would be recommended to the Council. They have made their report, in which they propose to effect reductions to the amount of £3000, but on glancing over the items we find tbat one-half of this may be at once set aßide as being nothing more thon apparent savings. It is proposed to strike £1500 off the item "Contingencies." Now every body knows that if certain contingencies arise they must be provided for, and if they do not, that (he money will not be required, but to say that nothing shall be set aside to meet them is about as sensible as if a father of a family were to refuse to take into his calculations tbe probable amount of his. doctor's bill, because, at the time, his children happened to be iv good health. Of course it is a pleasant thing to run a pen through £1000 and say, there, we have saved the Province that amount at one stroke, but, in order to ensure its actually being saved, the economists must be in a position to guarantee that the necessity for its expenditure shall not arise. The Committee proposed that, for. the future, travelling expenses should not be allowed io the Executive and certain other officers of the Government. Now, than this* there could not be, in our opinion, a more mischievous proposition. Ifc is well known that the cry that is raised against the present Superintendent from one side of the province to the other is that he never travels nbout the country, and consequently is, from personal experience at least, entirely ignorant of its requirements. From this it may fairly be argued that the people are desirous that he should visit the out districts and make himself generally acquainted with the wants of those who have elected him as their head. It is scarcely to be supposed that the way to induce a Superintendent to accede to this very natural desire is to require that he should do so at a loss to himself. So far from complaining that the Superintendent's bill for travelling expenses is too heavy, we are rather disposed to grumble that it is not a great deal larger, not that we want to see the money expended in official visits at stated periods, but in what is known as "knocking about" lhe country. Ifc may be well ihat once a year the Superintendent should bold meetings at some of the centres of population on the Goldfields, but the way in which we should like to see him making himself acquainted with the wants of the miners would be by going and seeing them at work on tbeir claims, in their mines, and at their batteries. Not even a Select Committee appointed to retrench would venture to find fault with travelling expenses incurred in such a manner. The proposal that the honorarium to members of the Council should be paid in a lump sum rather than by the day is a reasonable one, but does not appear to find favor with the Council, si nee ifc was negatived last night. The great advantage of such a plan would be that it would probably lead to curtailing the time over which the session now extends, not from the vast amount of work that has to be done, but from the peculiar habit into which the Council has fallen of meeting for the first three weeks at ten minutes past five, and adjourning at about ten minutes to six. The people of the province do not object to paying the honoraiiura, but they do like to see the work done. On the whole, we are very glad that this Committee was appointed, and it is a matter for congratulation that the Estimates were found to have been framed with such regard for economy that £1500 was all the actual saving that could be recommended by the most ardent financial reformers that were to be found in the Council.