The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1880.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 175, 24 July 1880, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1880.

The game of reductions was very prettily played in the House of Representatives last night. We use the words " game " and " played " advisedly, and, after a perusal of our Parliamentary telegrams most people will think, aptly, for, after all the high falutin' there has been about retrenchment, and the determination that has been expressed to hack aud hew away indiscritniuately at the salaries of all who are unfortunate enough to be in the Government service, the discussion on the houorarium item and the numerous divisions thereon look very much as though the members, so soon as their own pockets were to be touched, ceased to appreciate the gravity of the financial position of the colouy, and were inclined to regard retrenchment rather as a joke than otherwise. They were invited to make a seusible reduction in their own pay amounting to 20 per cent, which meant that each one was to receive £168 instead of £210 for his Parliamentary services. Oh no, they would not hear of tbat, and the proposition was rejected with scorn. Fifteen per cent—Would they deprive themselves of £31 lOh ? Well, on the whole, they thought that was asking just a little too much of them. Ten per cent Did they mind giving up £21 ? In common decency, after all the professions they had

made; it really was incumbent upon them to make some little show of self-sacrifice, and so they would consent td accept a similar reduction to that which was td be enforced in the case of the unhappy clerk who was struggling to maintain himself and family on £200 a year. The reduction of course means something saved, aggregating as it does £2751 on the honoraria of tho forty-five members of the Upper and sighty-si* of the Lower House^ but it might well have been double that amount. Fivo thousand five hundred and two pounds would* have been a far more appreciable saving, and such a reduction in their own pay would have shown that our representatives were really in earnest in their efforts at retrenchment. As it is, they remind us very 1 much of the bjld American who was ready to shed the last drop of his brother's blood in his country's cause. Of his own he was very much more chary. The question of retaining in the new Licensing Act the provision for granting bottle licenses has been a good deal agitated in Otago and Canterbury, and uumerouslysigned petitions pro and con. have been presented to the House. The opposition to this particular class of license has its origin, we believe, in Dunedin, where the system has been very much abused, owing to the facility with which the license has been obtainable, the fee having been fixed at an absurdly low figure, in consequence' of which all sorts of little shops have been turned into grog shanties, where, though the liquor was not suppose! to be drunk on the premises, -and possibly this condition may have been adj bered to — it has been placed within the easy reach of those who desire to obtain it slyly, and yet would hesitate before going to a public house or to a respectable shop to purchase it. Properly conducted though, as they always have been in Nelson, these wine and spirit stores are a boon to the public, as liquors of a superior quality to those ordinarily exposed for sale in the public house are obtainable, while the temptation that is offered at the bar or at such little grog shops as we have described is wanting. By fixing the license fee at the same rate as that which the publican pays, all the worst class of liquor stores would be practically closed, while those which it is desirable to retain would still remain open to the public. The following telegram, received last night from a Wclliugton correspondent, shows the amount of interest taken in this matter in the Otngo and Canterbury districts, and also, ie must be admitted, the apathy that prevails on the subject in other parts of the colony: — "A return just laid on the table of the House shows the number of petitions presented during the session in favor of provision being j made in the Licensing Bill to retain the bottle licenses to be eighteen, from Otago, Canterbury, and Nelson, bearing IG2B signa tures, while there are only two petitions against the continuance, from Otago and Canterbury, but having 1781 signatures. There are no petitions, either for or against, from any other part of the colony." News has beeu received from the Golden Ridge Company at Anatori that ftheir last crushing yielded 110 ounces of gold, and that there was every prospect of the yield increasing. In the report of the divisions on the honorarium question there is evidently an error in the last one, Mr Hursthouse being made to vote with both the Ayes and the Noes, the totals, however, remaining correct. There can be little doubt, though, that his name has been rightly given with the Ayes, and erroneously inserted amongst the Noes. Tub Customs receipts for the week ending 24th July, amounted to £588 19s Id. The " Sightascope," recently arrived from the South, will be on view at the Masonic Hall to-night, when a curious musical instrument will also be displayed and played. There was a good attendance at the meeting of the newly formed Carbine Club, held at the Nelson Hotel last night, when the rules were discussed and adopted, and a number of entries were received for the match to be fired next Monday week. The list will remain open until Priday evening, when the handicaps will be declared. The programme of the literary and musical entertainment to ba given in the Shel-boume-street Sunday schoolroom on Monday evening next will be found in our advertising columns. The admission fee is fixed at the low rate of one shilling, for which a very pleasant evening's amusement may be obtained. The proprietors of the Queen offer to lady artists three prizes— one of £50, one of £30 aud one of £20 — for the three best drawings or paintings of subjects suitable for publication in color-printing with the Christmas number of the Queen. |Here is a chance for some of our Nelson lady artists. The evangelistic meetings at the Temperance Hall will in future be held every Sunday evening from 7 to 8 o'clock. A pew weeks ago we noticed an absurd set of regulations which had been drawn up by the National Bank to be observed by its employes. One of these is thus noticed by the New Zealand correspondent of tho Australian Banking and Insurance Record published in Melbourne :-"One of the banks has introduced a clause into the agreement signed by all its employees, to the effect that if they shall take service with any other bank within one year of leaving their first master, they shall pay a fine of one year's salary. This proposal has given rise to some remarks, and I should doubt its being worth very much at law in case of a dispute. The growl on the part of the suffering clerks who, of course, dislike the clause immensely, draws attention once more to the overcrowded state of the clerk market. The inferior article is superabundant with us, though a good clerk, with a managing head on his shoulders, is still hard to get. It could only be when employers have it all their own way, that insistence on such a provision could be possi ble. The remedy lies with parents who refuse to make their boys good stonemasons, while they insist on their becoming bad bank clerks."