CAN IT BE POSSIBLE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 225, 23 May 1872, Page 7

CAN IT BE POSSIBLE.

The " Nelson Evening Mail " thus alludes to the opening speech of the Superintendent of Nelson to his Council : — " In these days of * progress,' which is but too often synonymous with reckless expenditure and unlimited borrowing, the address of his Honor the Superintendent on opening the present session of the Provincial Council must have created no little surprise in the minds of those who were present at its delivery. In the times in which we live the fact of the expenditure of a province being within its revenue seems almost too absurd to be believed, while in the idea of devoting a couple of thousand pounds, which in this case is the difference between revenue and expenditure, towards paying off a public debt, there is something so thoroughly novel aud unexpected that we could with difficulty bring ourselves to believe that his Honor was not hoaxing the gentleman of the Provincial Council. However, as he maintained his gravity while reading the startling paragraph, and as it has since appeared in print, we are bound to believe that he was stating a positive fact, aud although there may be those who will look upon such an extraordinary circuuistauce as an evidence of slowness, and one which could not possibly have occurred in any other province but that upon whose chief town has been bestowed the nickname of ' Sleepy Hollow,' we venture to express our gratification on finding that those at the head of our affairs have not yet been seized with the take-no-thought-for-the-morrow mania that is just now so prevalent, but they are possessed of sufficient prudence to endeavour to make both ends meet in their administration of the finances of the province."

"Playboy," in his " Sporting Notes " for tlie Melbourne "Weekly Times," says :—": — " Now that Randwick is over and full reports have come to hand, we know all about it. Favourites generally had a bad time of it, and, consequently, the ring must have come off best. However, there are some large winners, a wellknown sporting Esculapius having landed a good stake over The Prophet in the Cup, and a high functionary from New Zealand, who had a particularly good time of it since he came to Melbourne, having done ditto over both Leger and Cup. If this gentleman is as 'cute in political financing as he is in betting, then the NewjZealanders will do well to keep him at the head of their Treasury, for not content with pulling off several ' Hamlets and Prophets,' and backing both separately, he actually backed the three crack three-year-olds each to get places in the Cup, and as two of them did so, he was rewarded for his pluck." Poor little Col. Gorton finds himself in a fix in Wanganui. He has gone there flourishing his brand,* and burning to distinguish himself ; but it appears that the furniture in the Conrt-house has never been passed by the Government ; consequently, if the brand is put on, and the furniture afterwards rejected, the contractor will doubtless refuse to lake it back. It is feared that the self-restraint he is compelled to practise for a little while will undermine his constitution. An Auckland correspondent of the "Daily Times" writes: — " Yogel has managed to get off, not only without facing his constituents, but under cover of an imaginary public banquet in his honour. It appears that a few gentlemen took it on themselves to represent the public, and gave him an opportunity of declining, in a letter, obviously intended for pvblication, to attend the banquet which they in the name of the public tendered to him. The requisition was not published, and no one knows who signed it. The idea is, that the affair originated among a few personal toadies and others desirous of getting some of the pickings which are flying about so freely*. Letters about it are appearing in the papers, so we shall probably have the requisition published if the signatures to it are as numerous as represented. ,My own notion is, that people are getting tired of this sham hero worship, and of the perpetual attempts to exalt their public men— attempts which it is shrewdly suspected these public men have a large hand in getting up themselves. There is too much of the 'Fly in Amber" about •it— ' The wonder only how the devil it got there. 1 A returning sober sense seems to me the uppermost feeling of the moment, and people are determined to withhold opinions till they see a- little more of the result of the heroic policy. The Provincial Government of Taranaki is a very unpretending institution. From the estimate of revenue and expenditure laid before Council, for the half-year ending December, it appears that the available revenue for the year from all sources-, including the fifteen-shilling capitation grant, but excluding grant for public works, as being of an exceptional character, only amounts to the sum of £4450 ; while the expenditure is estimated at £5084. No wonder that the "Herald " considers the present cumbrous system of government absurd, and advocates a I municipal system. -