CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 165, 6 July 1875, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

A NEW ARRIVAL ON NELSON AFFAIRS. To the Editor op the 'Evening Mail.' Sir— ff one were to believe every demagogue that haringue* the working-men of Great Britain, and the literature Dr. Featherston 's office sends out for the working-men's perusal New Zealand ia a perfect piradise, a real El Dorado, in which the horny-htoded son of toil is to bave all his social and political burdens lifted from his shoulders, and a dwelling found for himself aad family in a pleasant Vallambrogi, with an actual cornuuopia suspended over his door, dispen-iog its good things with a profusion that could only ba conceive* by tbe mind of a Baroa Munchausen. I think the proverbial grain of salt was by me handy when I read or listened to the praises of the Britain of the South ; but I really did expect that tiie town of Nelson would have been nearer to assimilation than the point to which the digestive organs of civilization have as yet Burceerfed in bringing it. You coionis s tell bs of the Old Country— th^t we are over-legisla^d, that we cannot take a step witliour being brought up all standing by a law, It is tra*. we c moot l ride into the onntry without having ro dra* bridle and satisfy the neminds of a law-posted t >ll keeper ; it is true that we cannot st p on a stre t at Hone to talk to a friend without being told by an emi.sary 0 f the law to «' move on ;" it is true thit Acts ot Parliament exist taking cognizance of almost everything— from the selling of fold and drink, the building of a house or a ship up io the hours of libor of women an i children li|.t f;tien it istru?, too, that if we p*y tolls we have good rendu for our traffic, which you ha?e not, as witness the rqads of Nelson at tins moment {vide also the sp< ech in Nelson Provincial Council of Mc D, M'Gregor. member for the Buller); it v aho tnji that tho policeman s " move on ' keeps a pavementcovered path and miintains order and comfort io the thoroughfare. No loafers a»n stand and « gas " opppiite a public home at a street corner and treat every passable-looicinff female to an iU-bped stare, or ppas remarks on he? whjch are, to ?ay the Imi of them, rude. It is true we are t-»*ed— taxed to the highest point, and perhaps over— hut then we would not tolerate yawning gulfs like the ditches you cull drans, nor would we suffer a Slough of D.spnnri like your mud-flat- the iever-oed that adjoins the station of the City '^, u _ ; °rl ths mud " bl g at the corner ot the J Globe Hotel. If we are tared by oar City Corporations for police and improvement purposes, we are not allowed to walk into op-n water-courses (your ditches are so in these rainy days) for wans of swpenn%th of ight, ft op info the qea ior ftp of a fence Ju the absence, ot a Ka^-lamn. We did not begin, to tax tb.r education until \»eh»dfc*xed for safety *o life and Jimh, 83 w§U as f 9 r ge W l eoßßfc-rt; *nd, whea we did bpgjn, we made some show of justice in levy. »og our taxes 'I he childless workman paying an an mai rental of £10 or £13 waf not charged the s.me as the wealthy merchant : whose domf stic fires could burn as fuel ia one week the whole structure forming tha workman's hn.«e. If su v n rhe system ! RWMfled, ffe -should thinfc the'n>e were legislated foi? a little too much; but up House of C3mmqns q'ould ever paas such a measure, aad i Mr Lowe would ha^e djed hsfora he suggta- ' fed sjjcb t*n ogg. Bjs ex hce luee'hm zdfla i a l the still born match tax raised a perfect storm of firework and crackers about hia ears; but a levy like Nelson's education rate w< uld have sprung a mine that would have blown ins financial repntation U the fyur of heaven. A properly qualified valuator awsw the Yai<ie of property in actual occupation by the proprietor, while the rent book tells at once (and is comptlkd to tell) the real value of property leased to a tea«nt. The local goYe-fnipg* foody Q t Nelsoa— the titty Cquqci}— is fearfully ana wonderfully tnide. I ha?e become resigned to my fate as regards them, I only hope that the electors of Nelson did not exh>uot the list of eligibles when it put ths reins of Government into their hands. I am, &c., Nq 19 Bsarm Amidships.