The Invercargill Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 100, 12 October 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1863.

His Honor's speech on the opening of the Fifth Session of the Provincial Council, differs fz'om most of his former ones on similar occasions in one remarkable feature — the statement that the expenditure had considerably exceeded the revenue. Formerly the balance to the credit of the Province was, atone time £20,000, at another £9000, and now we are informed that the Province has overdrawn to the extent of £32,667 — and yet no previous speech of his Honor's lias given us so much satisfaction as this oue, or conveyed so distinctly the assuran c of rapid, continued, and permanent prosperity The necessity for unauthorised expenditure in a. Province progressing so rapidly, passing in fact through the various stages of a gold fever, must be apparent to all. A new diggings breaks out, I the road leading to it must be made available at arice ; long continued wet has necessitated^ larger expenditure than was anticipated, jet to hold back on that account, and leave the thing half done, would prove a government unfit for the exigencies of the occasionDoes an accideit occur in our harbors, then buoys and beacons are immediately called for, and unforseen expense incurred ; to withho'd from doing so were absurd, to call together the Council on each occasion were equally so. Let estimates be ever bo carefully prepared, in the present State of the Province, unauthorised expenditure will, and must take place, and almost as sure is it that at the end of the year the Provincial account will be on the wrong side of the ledger. So long as the money hag not been injudiciously expended, we need not find jxiuch fault with the <ioyernment for having expended it without authority. Whether such is the case, will doubtless appear during the present sitting of the Council. There can be little exception takeh"to the Unauthorised expenditure, pfi the |llarboy i Department ; much money, we believe, has been disr bursed, and much more will be requisite before our harbors are properly buoyed or our pilot service in an efficient state. The cause, however, for congratulation

in bis E|>i|qjr's speecH is trfe statemen,t that ai|||i|;h tK?^veo4effrom^|n|; sales h^^stllea^oiisiderabjly; slioyrt fo% what |raa |ar. ti<ii|*a^e.d , |$tl theli^ross; reveriuelfl!fj the ihas consider^ ably%xce^e(^^Hse^timate v in^ other; words, *wHile the teinporary-reveauie has not been so great, the permanent ;;one has increased wonderfully. The land revenue, if judiciously expended, while forming an admirable, and very great assistance towards putting the province in a position _to-yiel|l a permanent i revenue, cannot ,an<l ought not to be ( looked upon as the source from which, in the future, we are to draw our supplies. Every acre of land sold, lessens the fund on which we draw. The Customs and Territorial Revenue is the well from which we will require to draw our supplies. To deepen it as much as. possible, feed it, ensure its never running dry, is what the land fund ought to be used for. His Honor's speech shows that this permanent fund has rapidly and wondertully increased. We will take the Customs revenue alone. In 1861, it was L 4.500 ; 1862, Ll 1,700; and, in nine months of the present year, above L 40,000. The revenue derivable from other sources, such as publicans' licenses, &c, must have also increased greatly, and therefore we say that there is good cause for congratulation. That the land fund has falieu short of what was estimated is accounted for, not by a failing demand, but the inability on the part of the Survey stuff to keep pace with the demand. Well organized as that staff is, able and singularly energetic as is its head, the amount of work thrown upon it during the last twelve months has made it impossible for it to attend sufficiently to what may be termed its more legitimate duties, keeping the land office properly Supplied. What with surveying the harbors, laying off lines of railway, correcting old surveys, legacies of Otago, a good deal of land has been surveyed, but time could not be found to map it ; thus th?s branch of revenue has failed to meet expectation, but reference to the books and maps in the Land Office, shows at once that there is no falling off in the demand. Let but one fresh block be thrown open, and the receipts of that month are beyond the estimated monthly average: while, on looking at the maps of the old blocks, one sees that section nfier section, however far from bush, is being rapidly bought, while in some Hundreds, such as the Jacob's River and Oteramika, the whole is bought up at once. We are assurred however, by his Honor that a large quantity <f fresh lanl will shortly be in t ® maiket, that two or three new and important townships will also be thrown open for selection ; so that, judging from the past, we may reasonably conclude that the Land Fund, during the ensuing twelve months, will be considerable. We do not propose at present commenting on the other subjects introduced into His Honor's speech, further than expressing a hope that the Council will uot be too eager to expend large sums of money on public buildings, and, not. con.eat with the merely useful, be too anxious for the ornamental. The neighboring colony of Victoria furnishes a melancholy example of misappiopriated money in this respect : magnificent public buildings, begun in the old days of an overflowing exchequer, suddenly stopped for want of funds, may be seen all over Melbourne, and in some of the inland townships, thousands, expended on the foundations of buildings which may possibly never be finished, speak with trumpet tongue to the stranger the story of Victorian pride and Victorian poverty ; while the up country settlers, whose money has gone towards beautifying a city, cv se the folly of a Legislature which, neglecting to open up the interior, has contented itself with dissipating the public revenue in the erection of magnificent barracks in the capital ; and the curses will be louder and deeper, when, to pay off the sums borrowed for this purpose, a heavy land tax is imposed. The temptation to erect imposing buildings in the capital while the treasury is i'uH, is acknowledged very great ; it is so easy to say posterity will have to pay — to use Louis XV.'s apothegm, "after me the deluge'' — and we perceive our neighbor Otago has caught the infection-; but it is neither an honest nor wise policy. It is just that posterity should bear some of the burdens which must be imposed in opening up a country, by roads, bridges, and railways, for they will reap a large benefit; but that they should be shackled with a burden too heavy to be borne, for the aggrandisation of a mere section of the community, is unjust. It is, doubtless, a fine thing to point out to a stranger grand buildings— to a post office such as the one in Melbourne, and exclaim, " when that \sjinished, it will be handsomer • than any in London ; we have done all this in a few years ;" but it will be a prouder thing to point to a country intersected with good roads aud railways, and to a flourishing and untaxed population. Magnificent public buildings can only be erected with any degree of honesty to posterity in large manufacturing countries. * We presume it is the intention of the Government to put a sum on the estimates, not merely for the introduction of salmon, but to assist the Acclimatisation Society, when it is properiy organised and in thorough working order, in introducing wild fowl and game into the Province, both from England, and Australia. The introduction of igame of every description is a matter of graver importance than j would ; appear at first sight; it is not merely introducing a species of amusement for the few, but concerns the mass. The first thing a colonist

does on arriving, js to stnve hib utmost to Acquire * a competency, if not a fortune ? *if, after jea'rS of struggle, he is successful, and able to retire ft om business, he next looks out for some place in which, to settle and make his home for the rest of his days. The battle of life has been fought; he has conquered, and, wearied with the struggle, is desirous of spending the remainder of his life in some place where he can obtain the healthy amusements_of his youth,,; fishing and shdoting.- Experience, has proved that life in a colony frequently unfits a man for home society, -and the suceesful settler, therefore, fixes on some part of the colonies which offers the best prospect of .-enjoyment. The introduction of game into this province will tend greatly to entice such a class of men to make their home in. Southland. This argun.ent is applicable, not only to those who, coming out to the colonies young, have acquired enough to en..ble them to retire, but also to many men in the home country, who, possessing, a competence are induced to emigrate and settle in a new country, in order that their children may have a wider field for their exertions than is possible at home. Such men are inclined to be particular in the choice of the colony in which they make their homes, and to them, abundance of game would be a great inducement. From Australia also, we might expect many men of a similar class to settle amongst us ; for we do not be'ieve that game will ever do as well there as in this province, owing to the frequent fires, beat of the climate, &c. At any rate, good fishing and shooting would cause many visitors to come over during the Australian summer, and that of itself would be no trifling benefit. To say that a society comprised of a few individuals is likely to find sufficient funds to stock the Province without assistance from tho Government, is absurd ; such a society might be able to introduce a few birds of each sort, which in the course of years would amount to a respectable nuinbej, but this is not the way to introduce game into a new country. To bring in two or three, hares at a time, a brace of pheasants &c, is too slow work ; a generation might pass away before any appreciable result was attained. If game is to be introduced, it must be on a more extended scale. Let thirty Or forty young birds of each sort be brought over at once, and two or three hundred hares, and in a short time the Province will teem with game. The lovers of coursing have fine plains on which to enjoy th.t most fabeiiiati'iig of English sporis ; while the hare wi 1 have ample shelter to breed in, and food to support its young. The inland lakes, will carry myriads of the black swan and wild goose of Australia, and the islands will be choice spots for them to breed, and the numerous patches cf bush distributed through the Province will harbor thousands of pheasants. The climate, also, is well adapted for the pursuit of sport, and the sportsman, whether throwing his fly in tli-3 beautiful streams for which the Province is remarkable, or shooiing on the lakes, will realise more of horne — <■■ home scenery and home pleasures — than he can in the hot c'imate of Australia, and the attainment of such pleasures will undoubtedly exercise a very great influence in determining his location. We sincerely trust, therefore, that the Government will place a respectable sum on the Estimates to aid our Acclimatisation Society.