THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O' CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2844, 27 March 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O' CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1878.

Oub contemporary and his correspondent " Loyalty " in to-day's issue write in favor of retaining the gold duty. In neither of their contributions is there anything very new, and what is new is not true. We shall not attempt to answer all their rash assertions, which, seem purposely made to divert people's minds, and raise an alarm in the minds of the community by the threat of the stoppage of the Big Pump. It is like intimidating children with a Bogie to make them, good. Surely no one forgets that the engagement on the | part of the Borough pnd County to keep j the Big Pump going expires in February next, and that therefore one strong argument for perpetuating the gold duty will be removed, no sane person entertaining the idea for a moment that the continuance of this expenditure by the Borough and County will be permitted. " Loyalty," however, makes one statement which is •o utterly at variance with fact that it cannot be permitted to go unchallenged. He says : "If in the past we could point to any large special expenditure on this district there would be a resouable inference, the same may occur as our necessities arose, but it is well known, with a plethora of. cash in the treasury, when the ten million loan was being merrily spent upon the large public works of the colony, the handsome sum of £72 odd was the only sum appropriated to this district from Cape Colville to the Aroha." The italics are presumably the writer's, and the statement was no doubt intended to be conclusive that; with such excessive liberality in the past, very little could be expected in the future. Now, what are the facts of the case a« regards the expenditure in this district from the loens P In the first place we can point to the Thames Water Uace, constructed at a cost of about £75,000. Then there was a vote of £50,000 for "works on goldfields," tbo whole of which was expended on the Big Pump and its surroundings. For merely askingj some £7000 or £8000 were placed on the estimates by the late Ministry to pay off the overdraft of the Borough and Highway Boards, owing to the "exceptional circumstances of the district." We need not go further to prove the unreliability of "Loyalty's" statement, which we can only hope has been made inadvertently, although from the tenor of the letter at the beginning—• the mixture of abuse and bad grammar— "Loyalty" might be charged with wilfully suppressing facts. To the question, "What hope have we, then, with an exhausted exchequer, and large uncompleted contracts on their hands, that the present Government will be placed on the estimates to meet our manifold wants ? " We reply, the Premier has stated that more loans will be absolutely necessary; while we have the admission of another Minister of the Crown that the district has not had its fair share of the Public Works expenditure. Coupling the statement of the one with the admission of the other, we do not see any cause to fear that the repeal of the gold duty will work such ruin in the district as prognosticated.