New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, AUGUST 21.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4809, 21 August 1876, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, AUGUST 21.

Two gentleman, who have come somewhat in the capacity of delegates from the Thames, have arrived in Wellington. Their object is said to bo that in case any special grant should be made by Parliament to the Auckland province, the portion to be allotted to the Thames should be fixed, and not left at the discretion of the Auckland authorities. The gentlemen in question are Mr. J. ill. Macdonald, Mayor of the Thames, and Mr. Brodib, Chairmanoftho Waiotahi Highway Board, rtnd they have arrived at a pretty favorable conjuncture for attaining the object of their mission. It is now tolerably well understood that the more sensible of Sir George Grey’s followers decline to follow him in a third resistance to the inevitable, and are prepared to accept that assistance to Auckland which the House has cheerfully recognised should bo accorded. The Thames claims a distinct share in this assistance, and that not without groat show of reason. The borough at the present moment has an overdraft of some £6OOO, and this is not to bo wondered at, when it is considered that it has not a single endowment of any kind, and that the goldfields revenue and all license fees such as publicansandothers are absorbed by thoProvincialTroaaury. Thegoldfields revenue last year- amounted to'about £14,000, and of this it is stated that only about £IOOO was expended as the Thames. There are somewhere about 14,000 people in the Thames district, and during the last five years they have paid, in special taxation, into the Provincial Treasury, £112,000, They have received from the general funds of the colony £50,000 in aid of carrying on what is known as the Big Pump, and £60,000 has been spent on the’water-race. The Thames district has been in many respects the salvation of the Auckland pro-, vince, yet though the goldfields whoso existence poured such |wealth 'into the

provincial coffers have been nine years in existence, there is no road running into the goldfields proper for niore than a quarter of a mile outside of Grahamstown. Lastyear the Thames people sent a petition to the House of Representatives, asking for £30,000 to be expended on these works, and a committee reported favorably as to the justice of the request. Under these circumstances it is plain that in any assistance which' Auckland may receive, to enable her to start on fair terms with other places under tlie new system of local government, the claims of the Thames to a proper share of that assistance should be definitely fixed.