The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY JULY 2, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 2 July 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY JULY 2, 1880.

The want-of-confidence motion came to the vote, last evening, ami resulted in tlie Ministry obtaining a majority of fifteen. The"result of the division was never in doubt j from the time tlxe motion was first brought forward to tlie locldng of the floors preparatory to tiikjog the division members on ftll sides feic- confident that tlxe Ministry wore perfectly safe and

that the Opposition had 110 hope of regain ns power. But though the discus; Son has not had the cli'ect of bringing about a change of Administration, it has shown the weakness oi the Ministry, and Las most nniuisialjsably proved ! tltsit the financial proposals of tlje I Government are not acceptable to tlie House. This has been clearly demonstrated by the severity with which hitherto stawuca supports of the Ministry have criticised s<ieir proposals. These hitherto patient followers of the Government Lave even gone to greater lengths than the most bitter opponents of the Ministry. They have ruthlessly torn the financial policy of the C4oycnijjient into shreds, and have bidden ijie Ministryeoinotherdiifetions. Whether Mr. Hatiand Lis colleagues will comply •with the demands of their form er adherents remains yet to be seen. But of one thins* we may rest assured : Ti:e troubles of the Ministry are now only about to commence. They have a perilous task to perform.- They Lave defeated Sir George Grey, but they have yet to defeat their own friends. They have avoided Chruybflis: will they be shipwrecked on fecyjia? Time alone can tell. Ministers are, as our correspondent tells us. in a owing to the divided opinions of their supporters ; and they have before them a troublous time. V\ e can almost pity them, and could we be convinced that they had right on their sule we might even pray for their .sale deliverance. But as it is. we can only watch with interest the outcome of the most peculiarly mixture of parties and ideas brought about by ths incomj?otence. of the Ministry to deal co:V>; i£;l)eusivel\ r with the straitened financial- eiretua* stances of the Colony. Upon the result of the iic-couiidence debate the «country may fairly be congratulated. Hitherto the House Jias paid but little attention to finance. It has been too dry and uninteresting a- subject for the majority of tie representatives of the people/ and any discussions upon this inost important of subjects lists been left to a few members only. The debate which has just closed has, however, created a new order of things. Members generally have been convinced of the necessity for paying heed to the ilnrjices of the Colony. Speakei after speaker hits at least aitemp<.cd tc understand and discuss the. question oi Questions, and even though they have not been entirely successful, we have the satisfaction of knowing that tlie_\ , have learned to take an interesi in finance that they have beer awakened "to a of the true state of the Colony, and tiic necessitj for earnest effort and wi:;e legislation Surely some good must be the ontcom* of this new order of things.

CV-tvat a ret or libbers those Civil Service Commissioners tatnfc ;l>e, to be sure ! What dreadful stories they have been telling I They certainly ought to be whipped and sent home at once. And, onl~ think of it, too. ye lovers of the truth, not only ars' tjiey classed as gentlemen, bnfc one of tlicm is actually a baronet —not a more perishable kpight, mark yon, bnfc a baronet, a real live baronet, and such a baronet, too! "Why.fchey have aehially been telling horrible " crammers" about poor Xelsort. They hav.e ibaolutoly placed on record, the startling isaertion that in that somnolent city there is t, manager of ™tiiways*dra\ving a salary of W25 a yeas', having under his charge 20 miles of railway, on which two trains only are ran daily. They have uuthcr.stated that in Nelson, there is also a railway storekeeper receiving LIGO, who lias neither a store nor stores. Now, only think oi it, ye .admirers of' the truth. There is -no truth in, either of these statements. They arc pure fictions, concocted for the; purpose of injuring poor inoffensive Nelson, j because it has not a single friend in the Government. This much we learn, at anyraic; from the Colonist, a very respectable | journal—at least, it used to be when Mr.

! Luetic w®2 its editor. We are told by cur ' that; there cwt.unly is a railr way manager v/ho a ye.it, wife the " portion of th-" rc-po.l wVJi Mu< iliat lie '•a.! only CO of railw:.? Itis-dirce-tlc of li'fl pa'-a o£ L 425 recii ollt'-T :-cvfo>i>\ :>t ilicton, a yeai iivMy ''•?'*'< lnileß wbcro I a yer.r jto mi zed to the in length, over . wor fceaf railway manager Colony by - the duty of 3upervs6or of also muk-rta tyhink of that, ye ;ccocothe J?J'-£c>n 1: '- .; t als<>j y a poor tax-phyera; mists I Hunk. of „i 9o;o f the and when ye to ]J 9f a" nonaged by tact t:1 lllw nisi oi railway m^nagels t'uis niua- - J v :--w I Then, return- - £ll ., ber oE trains run daily on lh« ' '

Nelson, the Commissioners are altogether in error. Their statement, the Colonist says, is untrue, and of course we must believe our contemporary, for newspapers never tell untruths, though Commissioners may. Unfortunately, however, the Colonist does not name the average number of trains run daily. Possibly it would have found it necessary to resort to decimal fractions to arrive at tlie exact figures necessary to express the number of trains that run daily over that twenty miles of railway throughout the .yep.:;.,and our contemporary acted wisely in not entering upon a sum in arithmetic requiring such delicate and careful handling. Itrmight have- madea-would,-have damage! its reputation for veracity. In such cases 'a genera! denial is the safest course to follow. Again, the state* ment of the Commissioners that there is a railway storekeeper in NVlson' receiving a salary of 11160 a year is not true. The officsr alluded to is a draftsman in the Public Works Office, who, in addition to his other arduous duties, is nominally storekeeper: Think of that again, ye taxpayers 5 Another heavily-worked, but poorlyrpaid, official doing double duty! And yet these Com*missioners think there is too lavish an expenditure of public money amongst the raitway officials of Nelson!. Oh naughty Commissioners ! Oh much-maligned and overworked officials! . Oh down-trodden and friendless Nelson!