INTER-PRDOVINCIAL NEWS.
The New Zealand Times thris refers to the Greymouth Harbor Scheme : " The report contains some information about the Grey river -which, anybody might pick up by a days visit to Grey. mouth, and is accompanied by a map illustrating what the local harbor and survey officials have ascertained." And combining the action of Greymouth in the matter of harbor works with the agitation got up in Hokitika anent the proposed railway, the same paper says : " The general and individual efforts made on the West Coast of the Middle Island to render the country accessible by sea or land, if they are not always wise, are at least worthy of praise o,n account of the enthusiasm which they exhibit. Greymouth, for instancefoolish it seems to be, wisely it may be —spends a considerable amount of money in employing foreign engineers and printers to inform the Government and the public how the river Grey can be converted into a greater harbor for shipping than it is in the state of nature in which it was found and still continues. Hokitika is literally so nigh minded as to contemplate the crossing of the Southern Alps by railway, or of penetrating them by tunnel at a great elevation ; and, baffled in that idea, the community, op some of them, conceive the possibility of achieving the samp object by ' laying rails' from ' Dan to Beersheba,' or actually from Hokitika, to Martin's Bay—thence to Dunedin j a work which would be but a trifle less difficult or costly than the tunnelling of the Swiss Alps or the straits of Dover." The Press, of the 27th instant, coneludes an article on the increase of honorarium recently voted by the House of Eepresentatives thus:—But, even if an increase ia thought desirable, we
are amazed that the House should have ordered it to take effect during the current year. If ever there was a time when members ought to be satisfied with their £lO5, it is this year 1874. For the session just ending will have been the shortest on record. If the Assembly is prorogued to-morrow it will have sat just 5G days, Yet this very session, when the number of days members have had to spend iu Wellington has fallen from 92 to SG, is the time they have selecti d for increasing their honorarium by fifty per cent. Tor eight weeks' work they are coolly voting themselves £157 10s. In other words, they are paying themselves for their services to the country at the rate of'ncarly £2O a week, or of upwards of £IOOO a year. The self-interest displayed by such an appropriation is really somewhat scandalous. We are curious to see the division list, and to learn who they were that voted with the ayes. There are men in the present House who are known to bo in needy circumstances, of whom it has been publicly said that they dare not pass an Insolvency Act for fear of becoming its first victim?. Their votes and influence must surely have carried great weight. Referring to the exploration of a new pass from the West Coast to Canterbury province the Register of the 2nd instant says j—Mr James Evans, who left town on the 14th August last to discover a new pass to Canterbury, returned to town last night. He followed the Big Wanganui river to its source in the hills, and discovered hot springs in the neighborhood of the gorge through which the river ru.is. He found that the river runs between two almost perpendicular hills with a roof of ice over it, and he was unable, owing to the heavy snow falls, to penetrate further through the gorge. Mr Evans intends, in summer, to penetrate through the gorge to Canterbury. The Westland Register writes: —Some weeks ago, we printed a paragraph svpwing how the individual who conducts the Buller News slandered the whole community of Westland, by the allegation that there was palpable jobbery in connection with the Waimea Race, which allegation was published udder the heading, " Westland Rapacity." The journal in question, by way of clearing itself, abduces a number of figures, proving a fact which nobody doubts, namely,—that the race will cost considerably more than it was estimated to cost. Unfortunately for our comtemporary's argument this fact does not bear, in the most remote degree upon the question of jobbery, unless indeed, to News means to insinuate that the Government engineers who framed the estimates were in conspiracy with the jobbers, whoever they were. It is further stated, that " claims for compensation, on all sons of pretences, have been concocted." Seeing that in one case only has an appeal been made fiom ' the Government arbitrator's award, and that in that case the question was submitted to further arbitration, the public will hardly take the word of the Buller News for it that any such concoction of claims took place* Finally, the News concludes a column of true fishwife's slang by saying, that if we can refute its facts, we shall do more to the purpose than an " argumenial (sic) ad liominem" We formerly termed the writer for the News " a feeble slanderer," hence his present ebullition, iu which he disregards three important requirements of smart writing, to wit, —logic, grammer, and spelliug. It is useless to pursue the subject further, as it is evident that his mind is very seriously affected, but we would urge upon his friends to apprentice him to some safer and less exciting business, say, that if a telegraph agent or wheel-man in a newspaper office, — before he becomes hopelessly deranged.
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Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1209, 8 September 1874, Page 2
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934INTER-PRDOVINCIAL NEWS. Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1209, 8 September 1874, Page 2
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