The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1889. COMING EVENTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1958, 19 October 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1889. COMING EVENTS.

It appears to us that our governors must adopt some means other than retrenchment to carry this colony through the “Slough of Despond,” to which they have brought her. Let us take the vote for education, for instance. The retrenchment in that has already caused great inconvenience, and now several of the Boards of Education complain that they cannot carry on with the amounts allowed them. The Napier Board complains that its schools are rotten, and that it has not the means of replacing them. This is just the point. Most of the schools of the colony will soon be in a similar condition; they are almost all wooden structures, and consequently must be replaced after a certain number of years* But it is not our schaols alone that will require replacing. Most of our public buildings stand in almost the same position, and our bridges on railroads and on public roads will also require renovating. They are aU wooden erections and cannot last. Within the next 20 years, most of them will have to bo rebuilt, and the question is, where is the money to come from, and how is it to be done ? Qup population continues to fly from the .colqjxj ; month after month the

same story is told, the emigration is considerably greater than the immigration. It is eiident this will not help us, because what w® want is more population, but while the Government of the country is carried ®n for the benefit of a few we need not hope for any improvement. Now the question we want to ask is, how are we to meet the impending expenditure? It is no use to say it is time enough to face the difficulty when it comes, because it is bound to come, and it is better to prepare for it. There is no way of meeting it except by increasing population, and that can only be done by extending settlement, and developing the resources of the colony. Hitherto Governments have directed their energies against this policy. Their ideas of settlements have been extensive sheep walks, and of industrial development to send the money out of the colony to buy goods in foreign countries. It is to this policy we owe our unfortunate position, and we shall never see a prosperous day until we change it. It is impossible that the handful of people now in this colony can meet the liabilities crowding on them, and the sooner they begin to realise it the better. YOUNG COLONIALS. Anothhe young colonial has distinguished himself as an inventor. Mr Brennan, of Melbourne, invented aitorpedo a few yeajrs.ago, far which the Government of England paid him £130,000.; now a Mr Egan, of Wellington, New Zealand, has invented another torpedo boat, which at a trial in England has been classed second in point of effectiveness and utility. Both Mr Brennan and Mr Egan are Irish* men, and both owe their success in a large measure to another IrishmanSir William Jervois, late Governor of New Zealand. Mr Brennan had the model of his torpedo for years in Melbourne, and he neither could get any assistance to perfect it nor anybody to take any interest in it until it was brought under the notice of Sir William Jervois. ' He at once took the matter in = hand, with the result that it proved an immense success. In the same way Mr Egan,’ of Wellington, owes much of his success to Sir William, who took the model of it Home when he left Now Zealand, and, according to a Wellington paper, Admiral Fairfax has said that the invention is worth £60,000 to the British dovernment for harbor defences. It is pleasant to find young colonists coming to the front in this way. It augurs well for the future of the colonies, and suggests the advisability of promoting technical education in every possible way. America has led the world in inventions so far,; but it is absolutely certain that further discoveries will yet be made, and it is encouraging to find young colonists taking a leading part in the newest of inventions.