THE EXPENDITURE OF OUR LOANS.

Evening Post, Volume XVIII, Issue 140, 11 December 1879, Page 2

THE EXPENDITURE OF OUR LOANS.

The Honorable the Minister for Public Works has furnished a statement of the total expenditure and liabilities on account of the Public Works and Immigration Loans up to 30th September, 1879. From this statement it appears that the total sum expended has been £14,079,543 18s Bd, which has been distributedasfollowB :— Railways, £7,883,787 16s 5d (exclusive of Provincial expenditure on Canterbury and Otago railways, valued at £1,104,281); roads, £774,451 5s 7d; payments to Road Boards, £225,000; coal exploration and mine development, £10,835 8s ; water supply on goldfields, £421,800 12s lid; aid to Thames goldfields' works, £50,000 ; telegraphs, £344,912 17s lOd; public buildings, £529,994 Is lid ; lighthouses, £82,247 18s Id ; miscellaneous public works, £245,138 16s ; departmental, £136,189 18s lid; immigration, £1,801,962 17s 7d; hind purchases, £720,454 9s 2d ; contingent defence, £80,000 ; charges and expenses raising loans, £554,269 16s 3d ; interest and sinking fund, £218,500 ; total, £14,079,543 18s Bd. The liabilities up to 30th September amounted to £3,123,487 3s 4d, viz. :— Public works, £1,755,621 13s lOd; land purchases, £1,210,802 9s 6d ; immigration, £97,063; contingent defence, £60,000. This brings up the total expenditure, when present liabilities are met, to the respectable sum of £17,203,031 2s. THE CASE OF MR. HENRY JACKSON. » We are heartily glad that the Legislative Council have adopted the report of the committee on the case of Mr. Henry Jackson, late Chief Surveyor for the Wellington District. That report practically exonerates Mr. Jackson from the charges of insubordination brought against him — which charges, we have never hesitated to express our opinion, arose entirely out of a misunderstanding between Mr. Jackson and the Surveyor-General. Indeed we believe that a letter which has been discovered since the inquiry (but was missing at the time,) proves this beyond a doubt. The Parliamentary Committee find that Mr. Jackson had done nothing to warrant his dismissal, and when it is recollected in what a disgracefully insulting manner that dismissal was performed by the late Government, it will be admitted on all sides that Mr. Jackson is justly entitled to ample compensation, for the indignity and loss so unjustly inflicted on him. Tho argument uaed by some Legislative Councillors against the adoption of the report — viz., that it would injure ihe discipline of the Civil Service — seems to us absurd and frivolous to a degree. It is monstrous to contend that when a man has been treated with gross injustice the wrong is not to be redressed by Parliament, for foar of clashing with the discipline of the department. A "discipline" under which such a grave wrong- could be perpetrated is itself in urgent need of sweeping and immediate reform.