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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 205, 26 August 1873, Page 2

" Snyder " says :— I have perused the Colonial Treasurer's financial statement, and still survive to relate the faot. There

are things in if. which, worked up, would be found as startling as anything Wilkie Collins wrote or Mayne Reid conceived. Mr Yogel commences with a peroration which, like much of what this gentleman does and eaye, has considerable originality about it. He tells honorable members that New Zealand has never been in a more sound and prosperous condition; that mothers, in proportion to numbers, have more children under five years of age than any other set of mothers in any other of of the colonies; that, we drink more tt'a, consume more flour, imbibe more strong waters, wear more boots (iv the scoria district I presume), buy more clothes than aDy other dwellers in regions on either side of the hemispheres would be able to stand. The Treasurer forgot, to say that we were taxed more, paid more, aud got, more on the whole, rather leas incoming than the regions he refera to. Ha said in effect that we were a happy people, and that be had come to love the couotry of his adoption (as why shouldn't he). Then he said that we owed over ten millions of money; that he wns going to borrow two and a half millions more, and that we lived in a fair salubrious climate. I like Mr Vojjel, because be is so thoughtful; he doesn't allow a penny to go to waste. When he tells us that the liabilities of the colony, irrespective of provincial accounts, are six million five huudred thousand, he does not otnifc to add the " six shillings and threepence" In another place lib tells us he has paid off forty-five thousand pounds four and elevenpence of a debenture debt. The fellow who took that elevenpence after making such an unexpected haul v/ns mean and contemptible. That's what I say. He doesn't appear to have asked the Treasurer to go and have something? But we see how rareful Mr Yogel is. He argues thus: —"Take care of the pence and the millions will take care of themselves. A pin a day ia a groat a-year. A penny saved is a penny earned." The Treasurer ia quite "Poor Richard" in his way. Who's afraid of the finances of the colony going astray after this ? A Child's Love. —A pathetic incident occurred during- v late flood at Binghamton, (America). A Mrs Fox, residing near the cemetery pate, heard, in the morning", a peculiar moaning in the direction of the cemetery. Going there she found iv little child waist-deep in water and weeping near a headstoue, which marked a lonely grave. Upon being questioned she said that she lived a long way off. She had heard that the graves were covered with waler, and she feared that her mother's would he washed away, so she went to keep her poor watch and ward beside it. She was kindly cared for and returned to her motherless home. A comic incident happened recently at the Teatro Apollo, Rome, during the performance of a ballet. In the middle of the stage a large fountain was sending forth a spray of real water amid the applause of the spectators. All at once the jet fell, the water ceased, and at the same time a crowd of frightened ladies, in all manner of undress, bounded across the stage. The reservoir pipes hai burst and inundated the dressing-roome. The scene may be imagined; nor did the excitement of the public end even when the curtain was lowered.

Por remainder of news see fourth page.