The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, NOVEMBER 10, 1852.

Taranaki Herald, Volume I, Issue 15, 10 November 1852, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, NOVEMBER 10, 1852.

It is a gratifying fact that there is in this settlement a most refreshing absence of all flagrant outrages,against life and property, unparalleled, we should.think,inthe known world, with a like amount of population ; and more like the dream of a Bacon, a r More, in the Utopia or Atlantis, than a reality in the every day world. Yet does it nevertheless present the anomalous picture, of a community spending half of its whole revenue in the support of an armed police ; which is nearly wholly needless, or the duties of which might at all events be efficiently performed for half the amount ; while the settlement is absolutely at a dead lock, for want of means to carry out pressing and necessary improvements. Our roads are dangerous, and nearly impassable ; our bridges in a dilapidated and broken down state ; our boats without the necessary covering-, our postal regulations dilatory and imperfect ; and the only land we have, unsaleable by reason of want of access. Yet year after year, upwards of one thousand pounds out of a revenue barely exceeding two thousand pounds, is thus wastefully diverted from more useful objects. On reference to the recent estimates, we find that the settlement of Nelson, with a population doubling outs, and a revenue far exceeding any amount we collect, contrives to keep the peace of the district for a sum barely exceeding a third of what we pay. In relation to the settlements of Otago and Lyttelton, the same authority places the police expenditure of the former under £600 and that of the latter under £500 per an•"m. Each of these places has a revenue

fat exceeding ours ; and if a police esta-, blishment should have any relation to the *mount"6f Population, they aw equally beyond us in that particular. It would be hardly fair, under other circumstances, to institute a' comparison between a quiet agricultrtral" district like New Plymouth, and considerable commercial and shipping ports like Auckland and Wellington ; which have local necessities for police, applicable only to themselves, or places of a like description. But, even here, tlie comparison does not fail ; and we find that in proportion to the' population and revenue of those places, there is something like the same difference in this particular, as- compared with New Plymouth. Is there-airy good reason, why Ihe expenditure of this settlement, should not be brought within the lowest of these • estimates 1 Our observations -are aimed at the system, not at individuals employed ; their time and services may not be more than barely remunerated, but, as this settlement is at: present situated, with so much left undone of needful assistance to the commerce, agriculture, and general improvement of the district, it is an • expenditure 6f winch our peaceful state entitles us to call for a -revision, that we may enjoy in wise and useful improvements, the fruits of good citizenship. The revenue of the settlement — thnnks to the enterprise of her merchants and farmers — is reported to be largely on the increase. It behoves us therefore, to look with a 'shrewd and business eye to the reduction of unnecessary expenditure-; that such a 'fund may be quickly raised, as will enable us to i make some impression on the 1 many disadvantages under which the commerce and in- | dustry-tff the place have so long laboured.