HOW THE MONEY GOES.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1718, 27 August 1862, Page 4

HOW THE MONEY GOES.

To the Editor of tha New-Zealander.

Sib,—The master of the house is pften puzzled about how the money goes; and the good wife throws out hints about certain glasses taken in going and returning from market; still perceiving her husband’s wonderment, she points to the new dog cart, the new piano, furniture and dresses, but not to the crinoline. The husband scratches his head and smiles, he likes his wife and family to look genteel, and keep an appearance equal to that of his neighbour Puffedeup; but still he is puzzled to know how the money goes. States are individuals in the aggregate, and they too are puzzled to know how the money goes. Finance committees are appointed and expected to discover some groat malversation of the public money; their labours end in a report, that the money has been legitimately applied for public purposes; and still the public are puzzled to know how the money goes. Excuse me,- reader, if I tell you how I think a large amount of New Zealand hard earned money goes. It goes in this way—our politicians and statesmen are ever looking out for some external object upon which to expend the public money; at one time it is to subsidize a local steamer, at another time it is to subsidize steamers for inter-provincial communication, and then again it is to subsidize steamers for in ter- colonial trade; then it is for this object, then it is for that; and now it is for steamers to carry the mails to and from Panama—any way except that of internal communication. The Colony is sick, and her political doctors spend her money on external appliances, without applying “the means for internal sustenance. The country settlers want roads, our politicians give them, not a stone, but news from England at a shilling a letter. The Colony has paid over £150,000 in subsidies during the past four years, and what material advantage has it derived? If the same amount had been paid to subsidize a company to make and open a railway to the Waikato, (it could have been made to diminish as the traffic increased,) and then it tvould have been paid for the use of a largo capital fixed, (mark well,) fixed in the Colony,; it would have lessened the military expenditure, and brought the Government and the European face to face with the Natives. Steamers would have been plying on the Waikato, war would have been less probable, and coal and timber, stone and lime, flax and wool, and agricultural produce would have found its way into Auckland, to he exchanged for merchandize in a tenfold greater ratio than it has done. There would have been a greater inducement for ships to come into the Waitemata, because there would have been some thing to load them with, instead, as now, their going away empty. The Liverpool line of packets have ceased coming for want of cargo. Twelve month? ago four-horse vans were running to Drury, and now not a vehicle passes with passengers beyond Otahuhu, save and except those such as great Alfred rode in, 1800 years ago. What progress we have made in this the 19th century ! however, it is quite Antipodean, Again, how the money goes. The value of tme consumed in taking 15 or 16 hours to do what could have been dene in one or two hours, for the last four years, amounts in the aggregate to more than £150,000 (one hundred and fifty thousand pounds); and we have sent away upwards often thousand pounds from this Province alone for coal, an article which lies at at our very doors; how much has been expended for stone the buildings in Auckland will verify. Large suras have been sent out of this “granary of the South”; for bread stuff. The farmer is told that a rotation* of crops is essential to good farming, end when ho has taken out his first crop he finds it swallowed up in cartage to the market; it is like the responsibility of goiernmcnt, it is all quite antipodean. The imports into New Zealand arc increasing, and her exports are diminishing. The growth of grain in this Province is merely nominal; the latter caused, in all probability, by the want ot roads to get the products of tbo country to a place of shipment. Whatever be the cause, it is a subject for grave enquiry and immediate remedy. The improvement of locomotion in a country is one of the most important subjects which can come belbre its legislature. The whole character of a district for enterprise, civilization, and morality, may be changed in a few years, by placing it in more easy communication with the world around it The expenses of every family living in a neighbourhood, may be diminished, and their income increased considerably, by a single good road op-n to a populous town. Every argument is in favour of at once dealing with this question in a liberal and comprehensive manner, that there may be no further mismanagement of a great national concern. Yours, &c., Locomotive,

Coolbrook, 23rd August, 1862