The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 25, 29 January 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1878.

When the Immigration and Public Wor^a Act was first introduced into Parliament the principle was clearly laid down that the importation of labor and the execution of public works were to be concurrent. Over and over again it was stated that while the two together would be attended with benefit to the colony, the one without the other might be expected to produce the opposite result. In those districts where this rule has been adhered to, the policy which ha 3 given such a decided fillip to the colony, and has made the name of New Zealand familiar as a household word in the English money market has proved a decided success. In Nelson', however, this success is only known to us by hearsay, for we have not been afforded an opportunity of ourselves experiencing it. In the administration of the Act referred to we have been treated as the dogs to which are thrown the crumbs from the rich man's tabled these crumbs coming to us in the shape of periodical shipments of immigrants. Of the actual feast— the public works — we have had but the smallest taste. The principle upon which the Government have acted in reference to Nelson appears to have been—" We must not let them think they are entirely ignored, so we will send them an occasional batch of immigrants just to let them see that they are not forgotten by us." As it was curtly, but aptly, and by no means unfairly, put by a speaker at Mr Sharp's meeting last week, " The Government finds work here for about six men in the year, and sends 200 to doit." At the present moment there are many unemployed laborers with their wires and families in Nelson, and an addition to this number is hourly expected in the ship Gainsborough, now fully due from London. How they are all to find the means to live is a mystery, unless some steps are taken by the authorities to provide work for them. Now, then, seems the proper time to urge upon the Government the claim that Nelson has to a share of the expenditure that is daily going on upon public works. And there can be no possible excuse for refusing" the demand. The Port extension of the railway— which has been surveyed and re-surreyed and surveyed again in the hope that the people of Nelson might be satisfied by seeing chainmen at work and little heaps of stones and flags ornamenting the mudflat— has been authorised by the Parliament and the money voted. The plans and specifications ought to have been ready months ago, and no possible excuse can be alleged for the further postponement of a work which, in addition to its usefulness, would find employment for a number of meu during the coming winter months. It would be well if our representatives were once more to remind the Government of a promise made so many months ago, but still remaining unfulfilled. The Sydney correspondent of the Post telegraphs as follows under date January 25 : —As the result of exploration a splendid tract of country has been discovered in the interior of New Guinea. The native inhabitants are partially civilised, practise agriculture, and possess proper dwellinghouses. There is a capacious river flowing through the country, tvhich at a point 96 miles inland is nineteen fathoms deep. A Sydney telegran^dated Thursday last, says: — An extensive wool robbery has been committed at the Steam Company's wharf. Eight bales were stolen in one week. Five persons |Jb.ave been arrested, charged with being concerned in the robbery, including a well-known merchant.