Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1882.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1108, 28 July 1882, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1882.

A labge and influential public meeting was held last Saturday evening, in the Masonic Hall, to consider what steps should be taken to secure to this district a fair share in the allocation of the £3,000,000 loan. Several gentlemen spoke, and all arrived at the same end. Thera was not, and there cannot bo the slightest doubt on the mind of any thinking man that wo hare suffered shamefully at the hands of the Hale and Whitaker Governments. At the same time we must fain confess that to a certain extent the treatment we have received is very nearly what we deserve. We cannot but recall an old French proverb which, translated into our vernacular, says, “Help yourself, and God will help you.” Now we don’t for a moment mean to say that we haven’t helped ourselves to a certain extent, but experience tells us that we have placed too much faith m Ministerial promises, and the glowing prospects held out to us by legislators, and have neglected to keep them up to the mark. To say truth, deny it who can, we have been apathetic at the very least. Using very curt language, we have allowed a paternal legislature to make thorough fouls of us. They have derived all the benefits they possibly could from us ; they have had support when they didn't deserve it; they have found from experience that wo can't look sharply after our oivu interests, and, having sucked the orange, they can

easily afford to throw 7 away the rind. After years of labor, years of valuable contribution to revenue, we bestir ourselves, and ask for simply what is our just due (and does not really amount to that in full), and meet, as anybody with brains in their heads might have foreseen), with a contemptuous shunting of the whole question. After this Government have used us to the utmost they don’t want to hear any more about us. It is the old, old story, we have lent them our umbrella, and now we can walk about in the rain ' Well, we have only ourselves to blame ' lie shouldn't have lent them the umbrella ! ! ! The question is now, can we get the umbrella back ? We think it is possible; at any rate we may get an apology for it in the shape of a dilapidated “ Gamp.” That will be better than nothing, and on the principle of half a loaf being better than no bread, we had better make the best of it. We want a Breakwater, and we want money for roads, and considering the very patent fact that a Breakwater here would benefit other places equally with ourselves, we quite think we are entitled to ask support outside. There is no harbor between Wellington and Auckland on the East Coast, and the most competent judges agree in saying that Gisborne is the only fit place on the East Coast in which to construct one. In that opinion we thoroughly coincide. To the most superficial observer it becomes plain that such a Breakwater as would make a Harbour, in the real sense of the word, being a matter of general Colonial benefit, should be a matter for general Colonial expenditure, and we think the Ministry, careless of our interests as they have always shown themselves, will scarcely have the hardihood to dissent from this. The question of cost requires going into very thoroughly, and while we are told that it can’ be brought down to £50,000, we assume, as a matter of undoubted fact, that over-economy in such a scheme would be a penny wise and pound foolish proceeding. A contractor might construct a Breakwater for that amount, but we are quite sure that he could not make his work as good and lasting a benefit to the country or the district as he could for i four or five times that amount. But ' the question of cost is a question for estimates, and we think the wisest plan would be to offer a premium for estimates and drawings. Still even the question of cost is not the vital question. That we take to assume a far more difficult shape. .Can tve get anything at all? Here lies the rub! Public meetings are necessary to discuss these matters, but beyond public meetings there is another requirement! Public Energy— that is the solution of our difficulties. Let us see, if we cannot so enforce our claims by exertion of interest, by absolute worry, or by any means, short of un. fair ones, within the power of mortals, that this generous Government, who at any rate have been good enough to spend our money, and who are exitting to a great extent on the reputation of having done so judiciously, a reputation which, we take leave to observe, ' is open, to say the least of it, to a great deal of question on our part, to give us a portion of what they really owe us, and partially, if not wholly, satisfy the reasonable and immediate requirements of a district which has so long contributed unrequited and unmurmuring, to their eminently satisfactory financial position, and has, virtually, kept them on their legs. To this end we think a deputation comI posed of two or three influential resij dents of the district should be sent to ! Wellington to represent our wants to I this truly beneficent Government, and never leave them alone until they obtain satisfaction. It would be wrong to ask these gentlemen to defray their own expenses. Those might be defrayed by the Borough and County Councils, and recouped either by subscription for the purpose or by rates. Mr McDonald is working his utmost in behalf of our wants, but if he were 1 backed up by a deputation, ho would ibe strengthened tenfold. Whatever i is done, we must keep the ball steadily ' rolling, and not be content with an evasion or refusal in regard to our i fair share, in the allocation of the • £3,000,000 loan, for Breakwater aud Hoad expenditure.