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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5454, 19 September 1878, Page 2

A CURIOUS story comes to us from Canterbury. The , source -is so reliable that wo canuot refuse to accept the tale as true. Some time ago, when the abolition of the Provinces tcok place, a gentleman named Bull, who was assistant engineer in the service of the Provincial [Government of Canterbury, found that his office was abolished. Not long afterwards the services of a Mr. Ozerwonka; a professional gentleman employed in the Public Works Department, were dispensed with. The two gentlemen, feeling that they owed a duty to an ungrateful conn-, try, which they must discharge even at some pecuniary risk," compiled and published in December last, for general information, a pamphlet entitled “ Public Works in Now Zealand from 1870 to 1877.” Mr. Bull hns apparently contributed the politics of this literary work, and Mr. Czsrwonka tho science; tho resultant of the forces being proof, entirely satisfactory to tho two gentlemen, that tho Government and tho country have suffered a loss, now irreparable, by reason of the neglect and want of dno appreciation of merit of which they wero tho innocent, hut, as wo see, not unrcs'atiag victims. Abolition aud railways, water-races, and the native administration, are in tho eyes of the ex-Provincial and of tho “Young man from the College” equally bad ; there was neither honesty in the Government nor knowledge in the Public Works Department—-both were outside. “One of tho modes,” says Mr. Bull, “ adopted for extinguishing oil recollection of tho Provinces appears tj be to gradually get rid of all the old Provincial mm.” Admisnoa as member of the Institution of-Civil; Engineers, says Mr. Caerwouka, “depends—if ‘ Engineering,' aud the vast majority of its correspondents bo correct'—upon other thiugj than professional attainments. • Ability to ns'j tho skill of others, and a ‘proper. 1 knowledge of business, i.c., of tho ways that aro dark and 'tho tricks that ■ aro vain, would seem to have more to do with it.”

It is needles! to say that both authors are of opinion that a now era dawned with tho advent of the present Government to office ; they aro rsady, with Sir George Grey, to do tho engineering el the future. Lot ns, they say, “Ictus, endeavor,to build up a country that shall to an honor to ourselves, tho pride of our children, and the envy of countless nations yet unborn.” Tho literary adventure has not wo aro sorry to learn proved profitable to its authors; there were no purchasers ; care for

the interest of nations yet unborn appears to be exercised only by the present Government, and -to them, _as of course, tbe distressed friends of humanity applied. And this brings us back to our point of departure. It is said in Canterbury that the Government, with great liberality, have bought up or are buying up the unsold portion of this valuable work with a view to tbe dissemination of the information and opinions contained in it amongst the members of tbe Legislature, aud generally throughout the colony and beyond it. Suffering virtue will thus be pecuniarily aided, and the delinquencies of a corrupt Government bo exposed upon the always reliable testimony of servants discharged with a grievance. Our ■ informant has not mentioned the price fSr the books ; but as the Government are taking a quantity, no doubt the enterprising proprietors will put them in low. As there has not been any resolution of tho House authorising this expenditure, and no direct appropriation, some inquiring member of the Legislature may be induced to ask, Where the money for investment is to come from ? Land or taxes ?