The Oamaru Mail TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1301, 8 June 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1880.

Our Wellington correspondent has telegraphed to us the approximate cost of the four Commissions appointed by the present Government to do work which properly came within the province of Ministers. The first of these, the Native Commission, consisting of Sir F. Dillon Bell and Sir William Fox, entailed upon the Colony an expenditure of X3OOO, though the labors of that Commission were of very short duration, and its first report deemed so unsatisfactory that the Government, it is said, referred it h?r-1r to the Commissioners for amendment. The Railway Commission has also cost L3OOO, the Civil Service Commission L 2500, and the Local Industries Commission, L 600.' This brings the total cost up to the very handsome sum of L9IOO. We have not been informed what good these Commissions have achieved, though we certainly have been assured that they will work wonders. We can only hope that the Colony will receive value for the expenditure, but of we have very grave doubts. We are afraid that this sum of nearly LIO,OOO has been literally thrown away. And yet the present is an economic Ministry. Possibly these Commissions may have had the effect of improving the health of the friends of the Government, and even for this small mercy we should be thankful.

We are pleased to learn that the impending trouble over the possession of the Volunteer Hall on the evening of the 15th instant has been obviated. As our readers are aware, both Mr. Reid's committee and Mr. Jones' committee claimed to have secured the for the same evening, and manytongued rumor was busy with a report that the affair was likely to lead to some trouble, both parties being determined to maintain their right to possession. The question has, however, been amicably settled, it having been arranged that Mr. Reid shall hold possession from seven until nine o'clock, and that from that time Mr. Jones shall be "the irmn in possession." It has also been arranged that Mr. Jones shall address the electors on Saturday evening next. Mr. Reid is announced to address the electors of Livingstone to-morrow evening, at 7 o'clock.

Fleming & Hedley'a sale of Messrs. Jack, Steel, & Hendry's implements and stock-in-trade will be resumed to-morrow at 1 o'clock. Mr. Reid's Committee meets to-night at the Criterion Hotel, at 8 o'clock. Messrs. Mathew Morton, James Mitchell, and James M'Leod have been elected members of the Otepopo Road Board for the Chelsea Sub-division.

The weekly practices of No. 1 Company's Band will be resumed this evening, at eight o'clock.

A threshing mill and the elevators belonging to Mr. Hugh Ross were destroyed by fire on the farm Mr. G. Falconer, Awamoko, on Thursday night last, about eight o'clock. They were insured in the Transatlantic office for LS2OO. Mr. Falconer also lost about L6O worth of wheat—in stack and in bags, and we regret to learn that his loss was not covered by insurance. The origin of the fire is unknown.

Facts are better than arguments. To k show the difficulty local manufacturers have to contend with, we could not do better than make a quotation from the very ably conducted Dunedin Prices Current. It is shown that our locally manufactured stearine candles have beaten the world, yet they Bell at ljd per pound less than the imported article. Imported and inferior candles fetch IOJd with duty, whilst the local article, fetches 9d, This is a damning fact against free-trade for it proves two things (1), That protection does not end in the production of an inferior article. (2), That but for the duty our local manufacture might be killed, and the consumers gain nothing, but rather lose. Then, if we look at confectionery, we behold, the same thing. Keiller's and Wotherspoons' fetch from 3d to £d per pound more than the Dunedin, 1 and the Dunedin is not inferior to the im- , ported. Take cordage again, and New Zealand sells at Ll6 a ton less than European ' or "Manilla. If our tariff was made suitable for our industries we would see local industries springing up in our midst, and by these means a home market would be established for our agricultural produce and our wealth as a community not diminished but increased. Let the facts in the Prices Current be pondered.—Echo.