The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 1873.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 154, 27 June 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 1873.

In au article headed "Bogus Bills," the Australasian in a recent number made a powerful and' well deserved attack upon members of the Victorian Parliament, who in legislating for the country thought more of public approbation' than of the public good. The introductory paragraph of. the article is worth quoting. It is as follows :— -" It is one of the drawbacks of our representative system, in which there are so many tempations on the part of . the elected to .curry favor with the electors, that the former, in their popularityhunting experiments, are prone to indulge in what may be termed sham legislation. They stoop to cajole the people, whose intelligence they secretly despise and frequently undervalue. The hon. member for Bunkum, with a great flourish of trumpets, brings in a bill which professes to embody some extremely liberal principle, calculated to captivate the minds of his constituents. He does not care two straws about the principle himself, and he has very little expectation . of its ever receiving the force of law. But it is a popular card to play. He becomes identified with it; and when he next goes before his constituents be will be enabled to exclaim : — 'Behold how liberal and democratic are my instincts. But, you see, I am in advance of the age; and my lofty aspirations for your welfare are* repressed or destroyed by' an obstructive oligarchy.' As a matter of course the plausible humbug is rewarded with around of applause, and equally as a matter of course he chuckled iu private over the credulity of his dupes." Allowing for the difference in the surrounding circumßtauces v the scolding herein administered *to popularity -hunting legislators may to a certain extent be considered applicable to some of our Provincial Councillors, not bo much with regard to the "Bills they introduce, as to the frantic manner in which, night after night, they insist, upon placing on: the supplementary estimates such a weight as the probable revenue, that, after all, is the sole prop upon which rests the structure they take so great a delight in building up, is utterly incapable of bearing. It may be that, in eo; doing, " the plausible humbugs "-—the expression is the Australasians: — look to being reoeived by their constituents with a round of applause, but if those constituents took the trouble to look into the matter and see how mischievous a principle their representative had been advocating, they would not give him an opporturiity of "chuckling in private over the credulity of his dupes." This loading of that elastic sheet the '-Supplementary Estimates " with sums that it is out. of all reason to : expect -can ever -be spent has but one effect, namely, that of placing in the hands of the Government the sole power of deciding how. the, revenue for, the year shall be expended, since it iB impossible to lay out the whole of the money voted, it being so largely in excess of that to be received. Take the Appropriation Act recently passed as an illustration of our meaning. The anticipated revenue is £73,800, and this sum was fully appropriated io the Estimates sent down to the Council and agreed to by them, but the Act provides for the expenditure of £87,500. Out of this the Executive are consequently at liberty to say what amount they will apportion to the works to be first undertaken j as the .additions made by those who prize above everything else the applause of their constituents do , not ultimately appear on "Supplementary Estimates," with instructions that, should the actual exceed the estimated income, the surplus should be apportioned as voted, but are placed on the Appropriation Act together with the rest. We do not pretend tp assert that our Provincial Government is faultless, but there is one fault, if fault it be, with which they have not as yet laid themselves open to be

charged; they have haver been guilty of ucder-estimating the revenue. Being iu possession of this knowledge it would be simple folly on the part of those Councillors who do nothing else to recommend them to their constituents but plaoe figures on the Supplementary Estimates, to suppose that the sums they represent'will ever be spent. Every man likes his own children better than his neighbor's, and it is not likely that the Government will sacrifice the works they themselves have recommended to those proposed by members, for some, of whom they have no reason to entertain any feelings of affection. Did those resolutions with which the Notice Papers are so ofien crowded merely recommend that certain sums should bo expended upon specified works should the revenue permit of it, or that they should be substituted for equal amounts which appeared in the original estimates, there would be "some Bevj6o iu the proceeding; but as it is, in tbe course pursued by tho,se to whom we have referred (we quote' again from the Australasian) *'' we are unable to discern any other motive for it. than a consistent and unwearying attachment to the interests of Number One." .