The Daily Southern Cross. THOMPSON'S VISIT TO WELLINGTON.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2828, 18 August 1866, Page 4

The Daily Southern Cross.

THOMPSON'S VISIT TO WELLINGTON.

LTTCEO, NON ÜBO. " If I byre been txtinffuished, yet there rise A thousund bnooni from the qoark 1 bore."

SATURDAY, AUGUST 18. !

A glance at the Budget for 1866-67 is enough to suggest one thought to every observer, we should imagine. Fully a million of money is to be raised by taxation in the' colony; nearly a million is to be spent by the General Government of the colony. None of this is to go for roads, none for railways or reproductive investments of any kind, Tinless lighthouses ai'e to be so regarded, but still £974,500 are to be spent for the Colonial Government next year, or rather for the next eleven months. Our population is estimated at 200,000 colonists who pay taxes, and some 40,000 natives who pay next to none ; and it is therefore no exaggeration to say that Mi*. Stafford's Ministry thinks it will be necessary for the good government of this colony that, besides paying for all local improvements, <fee., out of their own pockets, and meeting the engagements under provincial loans, these 200,000 settlers should pay £5 a-head for men, women, and children towards the cost of government. Nor, let it be observed, is this by any means a war Budget. There is no excusing its heavy expenditure on the ground that a temporary need has arisen, which must be met, an 4 which will soon pass away. 'By no means. Mr. Jollie is very careful not to allow anyone to lay such a flattering unction as this to his soul. He is particularly anxious to point out that this trifling expenditure of a million sterling, in a year's government of this infant colony, is only calculated on a peace basis. No one must blame Mr. Jollie if a native disturbance, or anything else in short not quite in the common way, should swell the account by half a million or so. He is above all things guarded in his speech, and seems ever to have before his eyes the salutary dread of a new session, when his estimates may be found to have been too low. His own words are these: " Supposing always that peace is main- " taiued, and that our calculations in other "respects are not materially disturbed by " unforeseen events, they (that is, the esti- " mates) are such as will permit the Govern- " ment of the country to be satisfactorily and " honourably conducted." There can then be no mistake about the matter. The cost of governing this colony in time of peace, aad when nothing whatever occurs to disturb a Government's most sanguine calculations and hopes, is found to be a million sterling, or<£s per head of the governed. The statement is startling, at the best; and it does not become less so by any means when we consider that, for other kinds of government —the kinds that provide us with roads, bridges, ferries, immigration, and* the thousand etceteras so very necessary to our prospeiity —we shall probably find ourselves taxed another two or three pounds per head for the future. Truly it is rather a dear thing to be a self-governing colony in this part of the world! But let us take a nearer view of the matter yet. " A great part of this expense is caused by " the interest on loans and the like expendi- " ture," the champion of things as they are may be ready to exclaim. No doubt it is so, for we find that fully one-fourth of the whole expenditure comes under this head. There are no less than £266,889 a-year to be paid for this item of interest and sinking fund, and therefore this sum represents the expenditure of the past, and not the cost of the present, Government. Again, we find a rather large ■urn, amounting, indeed, to more than £300,000, which is, for the most part, absorbed in the payment of past liabilites, and the foundation of a standing army, the fruitful source of liabilities in the future. It would not be fair to charge these things against the existing Government, as they are both forced upon them by events over which they had no control. Then comes postal expense, and even of this it may be said that it is hardly Government, in the proper sense of the word. The excuse, indeed, may be disallowed with much justice; but, as it is sure to be made, it is well to place this £155,000 on one side, as partaking of a different character from the expenditure which remains. It is, indeed, a reproductive expenditure, to a greater or less extent j and in this it differs from interest on loans now spent, and the pay of a standing colonial army now first established. There is nearly a quarter of a million of expenditure still remaining, and this is as nearly as possible the pure cost of governing the people, who amount to not more, take them all together, white and brown, than 240,000 souls. There is a civil list, there are public departments, there is law and justice, a Customs' staff, and a Native Department, besides

a few trifling extras, the whole coming to an annual charge of close upon a quarter of a million of money. It would not, of course, be fair to compare this with England, and to jKHnt out that in that old country, with its thousand abuses and long-standing customs, which cost money, the expenditure on departments is only a fraction of the tax upon each individual that it is here. Of course we should be answered that our expenditure would not increase as our population did, and that this quarter-million might be made to represent our expenditure of this kind for years to come. It is easy to say this ; it is easy also to disbelieve it ; but it'is very hard to prove anything either for or against it. We may, perhaps, arrive at the truth, however, in another way. In North America there are colonies situated much as we are. There are some that are far more populous than New Zealand, and there are a few that are about equal to ourselves. An examination of their cost of government ought to throw light on the reasonable character or otherwise of our own. We know that, as a fact, government in Nova Scotia, and some other of these colonies, is marvellously less expensive than it is amongst us ; but we do not quite know how this is managed. If, however, the Government, or, which is perhaps more likely, the people of New Zealand, want to find out how it is that our Gevernment is more than twice as costly as that of some equally populous communities, they can easily find out by inquiry. Commissions of all sorts are the rage at present in the colony, and perhaps none could be I formed more likely than this we suggest to do good. We have had commissions to fix which of three bad places was least bad for a capital ; others to say how much money had been wasted in different provinces in a way capable of being made to appear a just charge against them ; another has sat to inquire how much better Government clerks should be paid, and has brought up a very gratifying report. Surely another might be instituted now to inquire whether it is not possible to do with less than 1,000 salaried servants of a Government like ours, and whether it is absolutely necessary to spend a quarter of a million a year in an expenditure that is wholly unproductive. We believe that inquiry would show how a great saving could be effected. We can hardly doubt the stoong wishes of the heavily taxed colonists in the matter.

It will be in the recollection of our readers that we published a paragraph in our paper, relative to the embarkation of William Thompson in the * Esk,' for Wellington, in which it was stated* that Thompson had declined t6 accompany Mr. John White to Wellington, for reasons stated, and preferred to go with Mr. Dehars, a Frenchman, because the French are all " gentlemen." The insertion of this paragraph naturally caused some annoyance to Mr. White, and we were assured by gentlemen who happened to be in the district at the time, that the reflection on Mr. White wasjentirely without foundation. At the request of the Governor, Mr. J. White went to Waikato and persuaded Thompson to go to Wellington. It was specially arranged that Mr. White should accompany Thompson in the * Esk :' in fact, Thompson at first refused to ge in any other company ; but owing to the receipt of a telegram intimating to Mr. White that his child was dying, he was compelled at once to leave for Auckland. Before leaving Thompson, however, Mr. White obtained that chief's consent to employ Dehars, to accompany him as interpreter, We insert these particulars to explain the letter following, merely remarking that the information in the paragraph referred to was obtained by our reporter from a source which he had no reason to doubt. We regret that Mr. White should have been caused any annoyance ; but the letter from William Thompson, which we annex, will doubtless be looked upon by him as more than a recompense. It is certainly no small influence for a European to possess that by his personal exertions alone the friendly natives were induced to stop the advance of the Hauhaus on Wanganui and to fight and win the battle of Moutoa ; and that again he could persuade William Thompson to go to Wellington, when the Governor, and gentlemen of high standing in the colony, failed. The following letter has been received by Mr. White :— Poneke, Hurae 31, 1866. Kia Hone Waiti, kei Akarana : Tena koe, he kupu atu taku kia koe mo to ingoa i roto i te nupepa ; kei pouri koe ehara i a matou taua kupu no Fonekc nei matou k* kite i roto i te nupepa c noho ana, c mohio ana an na Hori Tetere pea taua korero kaore ke atu hoki he tangata i kite ai matou. E hoa, kaore ano au i korero noa i aku kupu ki te runanga engari kua tukua c au ki te perehi ma te nupepa c korero ki a tatou katoa. Heoi. Na W. Tamehan a te Waharoa. The following is a free translation of the letter : — Port Nicholson, July 31, 1866. To Mr. John White, at Auckland : Salutations, This is my word to you about your name which appeared in the newspapers. Do not be dark about ifc We did not say it. We were at Wellington at the time we saw it in the newspapers. Our understanding of it is this, that it was George De Thierry, because there was no other European that saw us at the time. My friend, I have not yet had a talk with the House of Assembly; but rather I will write what I have to say and get it put in the newspapers so that all may see. This is all. Wi Tamihana te Waharoa.