AN UNNOTICED POINT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4603, 21 December 1875, Page 3

AN UNNOTICED POINT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —There is one matter which does not seem to be receiving the attention which it merits, though it was brought into prominent notice in Mr. Travers speech to the electors. I refer to the costly nature of proceedings in the. Supreme Court. Mr. Travers made it the subject of brag that during the time he can spare from his scientific faddles he can and does manage to extract from our pockets a sum equal to the united salaries deemed to be sufficient for three Cabinet Ministers. This is a large sum—a sum equal to the whole city rates—and it is not comforting tons to reflect that there are a score of gentlemen In Wellington similarly engaged, and to calculate how many of us must bo gobbled up annually to enable Mr. Travers and the rest of them to brag of the profits of their success in making mischief among us. The candidate who will receive my support is ho who will promise to do for the general practice of the legal profession wht.t the promoters of the Land Transfer Act so effectually did for it in the department of conveyancing. Mr. Travers had his fling at this very excellent measure—the Land Transfer Act. He deplored the hardship of the case of the poor man, who, having struggled hard to earn a little money, and succeeded in buying a little properly, finds himself called on to pay 10s. for a transfer stamp. So kind of him to think of it! Do you think, Mr. Editor, that I can count on Mr. Travers’ sympathy with me in my hard case ? I earned the money; I bought the little property : I, sad to relate, saw the 10s. for a stamp go into the voracious maw of the (government; and more wonderful still, I have seen the house, and the laud, and the fencing go down the gullet of W. T. L. Travers, Esq. ■ In the circumstances, I think Mr. Travers would have been wiser to keep his sympathy and his brag to himself. But then Mr. Travers is not and never was wise. He can talk glibly and foolishly ou any subject; he can talk speciously on most subjects to those who know as little of the subjects as himself; but was there ever such utter nonsense as he talked about the benefits to be derived from a lino of steamers to Singapore? “We could send New Zealand beer to India,” lie said. Why, the net returns of Now Zealand beer shipped to India by such a route would not cover the cost of the bung, not to speak of the cask and beer. New Zealand beer only holds its ground in New Zealand owing to the duty of 545. per hogshead imposed upon imported beer. Perhaps Mr. Travers may show us how it could bear the costs of freight and charges to India, ami then compete on equal terms with English beer: AU who think of it will see the absurdity of supposing New Zealand beer can be profitably exported-anywhere, so long as the New Zealand brewers find the best way of getting casks for their trade to be by the importation of the casks full of English beer, as at present. Mr. Travers talked of the other manufactures of New Zealand which we could surply to the numerous Islanders of the Malayan Archipelago. What did he alludo to, I wonder? ,Yes, there is Nelson tweed. It would be a good thing for New Zealand if these islanders could be persuaded to encase their legs in warm Nelson tweed; hut then they won’t, and, Mr. Editor, the Malays themselves won't laugh half so heartily as the good folks of Nelson, when they hear that their old acquaintance, Clerk Travers, wants to get into the Assembly to promote a line of steamers to carry breeches to the Malayan Archipelago. Perhaps Mr. Travers may bo good enough before to-morrow night to prepare pro forma account sales of New Zealand beer and other colonial manufactures which ho thinks may he profitably exported to India and the islands of the Archipelago. I think the result would make it. even more clear to him than Mr. Hunter’s plan, that.a little fact is better than a great deal of theory. Mr. Travers will wriggle out of it, corner him as you may, if not decently, then indecently : to-morrow night ho will wriggle out of bis statement about injustice to Wellington and undue favor to Hawke’s Bay in the matter of public works. A mass of verbiage.about political railways in Nelson and elsewhere, and a few bold assertions about matters of which his hearers know as little as himself, will serve his end with a few, but they will not deceive anyone who knows the man as well as the most of us know him.—l am, &c., A Working Man who detests Travers. Wellington, .December 20.