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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5029, 7 May 1877, Page 2

It will bo remembered that Mr. George Hunter, when presiding at the last annual meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, took occasion to comfuto a mistake made in “Westgarth's Circular" with regard to this colony, and gave some interesting statistics to show our national position. On this the Melbourne Argus of the 21st April says;— “ The correction of a mistake in the statement of the revenue of New Zealand made in “ Westparh’s Circular ” has caused in that colony a comparison of the revenue of New Zealand with Victoria. And it is rather surprising to look through the details of the comparison. The revenue of Victoria for 1875 was £4,236,423, and that of New Zealand for tlie same year was £2,841,953, But the population of this colony is 822,000, and that of New Zealand about 400,000, or less than half. This being remembered we find that Customs in Victoria yielded £1,623,234, and in New Zealand £1,274,400 ; excise, which in this colony gave £32,474, in New Zealand returned £102,670 ; ports and harbors, £19,935 in Victoria, and £18,667 in New Zealand ; business licences, £10,714 in Victoria, and £48,861 in New Zealand ; posts and telegraphs, which here produce £198,325, there, with a population of less than half the nnmber, yielded two thirds the sum, or £133,091. When we look for the great items of excess on the Victorian side we find them accruing from railway income and land sales, in other words, from sources which are not strictly revenue at all. It is obvious that the damaging mistake made in the circular referred to has done the colony good by enabling it to put forward a statement showing how legitimate are its sources of revenue and what very large suras it derives from them. The statement goes to show a wise and skilful adjustment of burdens, and also to prove great business activity in a country which obtains so large a share from Customs and excise, ports and harbors, business licences, and posts and telegraphs. To be active in the ways thus indicated is to work energetically, spend freely, consume largely, and enjoy to a high degree the advantages of civilised life."

One by one old associations of the early history of the colonies are fast passing away, and of none are colonists more ready to be rid than the presence of the British convict element amongst us ; for all the colonies were affected in a greater or less degree by .the system of transportation of criminals which ceased some quarter of a century ago. It may have been that convicts were never allowed to be deported from Great Britain to New Zealand, bub that did not alter the fact that many of the “ old hands” of New South Wales and Tasmania found their way here, attracted by gold or by the security of their freedom, pretty well ensured once they were •safely landed on New Zealand shores. And as people at Home regarded all the colonies as much of a kind, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and New Zealand came in for a full share of obloquy. Happily the system ceased, and the rising generation know of its incidents only what they may read in the dark pages of colonial history, or hear from lectures of the Agnew stamp, or what they may gather from novels such as “ His Natural Life.” Bor some years past the only “plague spot” of the colonies has been Port Arthur, and now this too has been cleared of the few beings who once formed items of an immense mass of human sin and wretchedness; and a stretch of beautiful country has been thrown open for settlement. The Tasmanian Tribune thus refers to the arrival at Hobarton of the last shipment of convicts and invalids :—“ Before the steamer arrived alongside the wharf was cleared by a posse of twenty of the city police, under the command of Superintendent Propsting. A number of spring vans and drays were then brought forward, and the gangway having been adjusted, it was guarded by a number of district constables, under District Constable Armstrong, and armed with carbines and revolvers, wlm had come up with the steamer. The first to disembark were the invalids, who numbered in all 23, hardly a tenth of them walking on shore unassisted. We do not remember having ever seen such a decrepit looking lot of human beings. When Paris was cleared of its useless population before the sieze of 1870, there could hardly have been a more harrowing spectacle of deformed and diseased humanity than that which took place on the wharf yesterday. Nine-tenths of the men were sufferers from lumbago, palsy, paralysis, some of them being afflicted by all these ailments, and having to be carried to the drays, where they were laid upon straw. After waiting some minutes sweltering in the fierce autumn sun, the drays with their freight proceeded to the Cascades depot. Pive or six of the strongest of the invalids having got their discharge, proceeded up to the town, evidently with the determination to 1 shift* for themselves. The prisoners were then brought up from below linked in twos by chains, the loud unpleasant * clank ’ of which was audible some distance off. The first couple was made up of the notorious Bright, in a magpie suit, and another convict of deep dye named Williams, alias Frenchy. The vans having been prepared, the convicts to the number of 47 filed into them, and, guarded by armed policemen, the cavalcade proceeded to the Campbell-street gaol, where the prisoners were all quartered. It is worthy of note that wo only noticed one man who appeared to be under the age of 45, and that was Walmcley, infamous for his crimes and escapes last year with Bright.”

Some people aeem to bo in a puzzle as to the effects of the meeting re Mr. Climie’s drainage scheme. In explanation wo point out that matters lie thus: Under the new Municipal Act no loan for special purposes, such as drainage, can be entered into without the consent of the ratepayers. Our loan, having been obtained under a former Act, doea not come under the above law; but the Council having resolved to take the sense of the ratepayers as to whether Mr. Climie’s scheme should be adopted or not, his Worship has proceeded under the mechanism provided by the new Act. The opinion of a public meeting will be first taken, and if objected to a poll will be held. But it must be clearly understood that no law exists compelling the City Council to act in accordance with the decision arrived nt by the ratepayers either at a public meeting or at the po ling booths.