WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 245, 8 February 1898, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

OUR OWN COnitE.erONDF.NTI. Wilun'gtox, Febrary 2. STILL BAWLING. The enraptured pouls of the Westlanders ure still throbbing with the intoxication of Premier Scddou's tratory. This ha provides for them wholesale, retail and lor exportation. Three hours and twenty minutes did he discourse last night at Hokitika, and if he did not gilvunis! the audience into a state of wild enthusiasm it must have Leeij the fault of the previous refreshments. In W<stland they like tlnir liquor with a hook on it. That is why there are three times as many 1 ulcers in the local lunatic asy'uin in proportion to the popnlati n as in any other siiT.ilar institu ion in the colon}'. The Press Association boiled down all this into a pallry three inches of space, an 1 this w.U lead to t» withdrawal of its prlvilcjes. As to ihi matter o' the speech it is a subject for surprise to Cud something new i<i it. Mr Seddon has confided h« views rn the state of Europe to Hokit ka, and says definitely there wil be no wat. This wll give Lord Salisbury a sense of security, which may enable him to enj y a poo 1 night's rest. No doubt Mr Sneddon's familiarity with Imperial polities and his close re'ations with Gem any have enabled him to clear the sky and re ssurc us th t our delapidated t rpedo-boat may s ill rust in peace and that Fort Peddon at Wellington, with o :e gun, and Fort Thompson nfc Auckland, with no gun, will not be called upon to make a demonstration against a foeign foe. It is really a wasting of opportunity and a neglect of his proper station f ir him to rem dn in a mere colony. Europe is call ng aloud for him in these critical times ; he is the cynosure of tie diplomatists, and, as a I'tivy Councillor of the British Empire, his commanding genius entitles him to go Home, and go at oiue, with his escutcheon emblazoned : " Aut Caxar, Aut Xfittlus." When he condescended to come down to matters of a comparatively parish character, lie intimated to Hokitika tint he would proceed next stssi n with the Old Age Pension?, Local Government and Children's Protection Bills. As to the former, we are getting enough and to spare of toth sides cf the question in every paper we pick up. Theie is no need in th'u rote to go over the welltrodden ground. The whole of the argument are summed up in one of John Buskin's works, and no ouc will deny the sjnipathies he had for the poor and needy. He wrote: "Charity is the temple, of which justice is the foundation ; but you can't have the top without the bottom." This will be found worth thinking over, and the o'd proverb about being just before we are generous is auother wise old saw which is much to the purpose. Any man can make himself popular with the mob if he promises something—even a shilling a day—where no work has to be done for it and no selfdcn'al exercise 1. So far as I can judge, the tn'y differense between charitable aid and a Seddon pension is that under the former the recipient has to show that he is in want, and if he gets altn3 ho has to behave hims-lf or the authorities will soon stop supplies ; while under the latter the sturdy beggar may go to the nearest post-office, exhibit his ticket, diaw his money, and liquidate it forthwith at ths nearest pub, and no one can say him nay. That is why the liquor ring is so much in love with the scheme. Brewery properties a-e btonvng in anticipation of the anticipated spurt, and red-nosed publicans are all apostles of the orthodox faith. How could they be otherwise ? LOCAL GOVERNMENT. As for the Liberal Government passing a Bill to enable lecal bodies to build their own bridges and construct their owti roads, the idea is so grotesque that one has only to realise that if such a reform happened the virtue of the loaves and fishes department would vaivsli, and with it the majority. If Westland, of all the counties in New Zealand, had to depend on what it could raise by local taxation and on its own credit, it would be bankrupt in a month and depopulated in a fortnight. This is no exnggerat : on, as one or two extracts from offic al records will show : (1) The Hokitika Harbour Board bonowed £IOOOO of Poit-office Savings Bank funds. It ceased to pay interest three years ago, and the repayment cf principal should have been made in November, 1896, but it is stiil owing. (2) The population of the coun'y, exclusive of towns, is 4,732, and the rateable value of the property is £179,200, which realises rates amounting to £ll2O per annum, Take as a com pariton a farming county—Hawera, with a tural population of G 934, a valuation of £1,176,000, and a lj-d rate which realises £6125 as against £ll2O, aud the outlying districts in Hawera have also a special rate of $d levied on them. (3) The population of Westland County decreased from 5031 in 1891 to 4723 in 1896, a falling eff of 308. Kumara decreased by 27, Hokitika. by 119, and Ross by 95, a total loss of constituents to Mr Seddon of 549 souls, or 6 3 per cent, and this ir. spite of the magnificent appropriations in the Public VVoiks Department to induce them to stop (4) That maelstrom, the Kumara water case, and its complementary sludge channels is an unknown quantity—a veritable x—in estimating what it has cost the colony, by reason of the ingenious manner in which the miues report is concocted. After much patient exploration in the 237 pages of that distressing compilation of rubbish the following facts have become clear:—The Kumara rice, the Waimea race and Sludge Channel< Ncs. 1 and 5 are part aud pare 1 of what would be considered ot.e going concern if a private company owned aud worked it. Being a State owned property anil leiDg, moicover, in Westland, it is not run on commercial Hups. That goes w ithout saying. The capital cost was as follows : Waimea race £137,284 Kumara race 41.4G3 Kumara sludge cbanucls.. .. 21,91i0 Total £200,712 This sludge channel itcn is the same as it was in the 1896 summary. For the works done and in progress in the fol lowing year there is set down for sludge channels, main tail races and drainage channels, w hich are all the same but named differently, £3742 spent and £2517 owing, all in the neighbourhood of Kumara. The numler of men cmployed is 90 on the Kumara section aud 66 on the Waimea. After paying for the use of the water tiny are officially said to make from £2 3s to £3 15s per week But a well-informed resident of Kumara cf many year's standing, with special facilities for knowing the facts, assured me that from 25s to 30s was neanr the mark after the cost of tools and explosives was deducted. It is when the Mines Department makes up tin profit and loss account tha» the comic element comes in. There are seven different tables showing in a mo't elaborate manner that a net profit of £1716 was made last year. Here is a condensation of three pages of figures : Wuiniea race. Kumara raco. Sales of water .. £777 ' £3502 Cost of maiut'auce 6l>o 1780

Net profit .. £lO7 £l7lO But these races arc worthless without the sludge channels, wlr'oh are a constant exptnsc. Both are necessary and both are part of one concern, but the sludge channels arc left out of the cost %?• of maintenance alto<;e;her. Here is an extract from another part of the report. " No. 5 tail lace is not yet completed. The total amjunt paid by subsidy for this work was £2463." But as shown above, the expenditure And liabilities on thece works last year was £6259, and as the so-called " net profits" were only £IS23, the colony • baa to find

ths balance of £4436.. which, divided among the 156 slu'rers it, gives a subsidy of £2B 103 to each Tliii to exempt them from participating in old age pensions, but these leeches are veiy much in favour of the scheme. The liiUres quoted above are made up to March 31st last, but some farther enlgh'ment has reached ns through the report of a deputation which wuited on the Premier re the No. 5 *dudge channel. They wanted something i f course, and the gnat man's ieply will he of interest to sett'ers who may have approached a Minister for a £SO bridge. No. 5 as shown above had cost the colony £2463 up to March, and £BB3 was then due on it ; total, £3240. Mr Seddon was critical but gracious. He repled : *' That he did not wish to find fault with the carrying out of such an important work as the No. 5 main tail race a«, without d übt, the trustees had gieat difficulties to contend with, lut in his opinion tlie whole of the channel should have becu completed in one year. He must say he did not approve of the present system of di ing tiie work. It should be let by contract, and the men at present engaged bhould be kept ut work until cue was le%. He was willing to gi*e three-fourths of the cost if the promoters found the remainder." In one t-h ;rt sentence he abandons the co operative system, the foremost plank in the Liberal policj'. He encourages mining promoters, who al-io eeem to be trustees spending thousands of public money of wlvch no account is rendered, or at any rate published. How in the name of common sense could Westland exist if a Local Government Bill were passed. As remarked at the top of th's note, Wcstlaui would be deserted in a fortnight.