CORRESPONDENCE.

Northern Advocate, 20 August 1887, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Bsrroß of the Nobthebn Advocate. 9 OUR BLEEDING COW&TRY. Sib,— During the IVaikato war a trooper of ■ .the Defence Foroe>who was not remarkable

for prudence, had a constant habit of getting into scrapes. Eor each of his offences he used to spend a night in the guard room, and on being released he always rejoined his comrades with Hie pathetic exclamation', " Oh ray bleeding countsy, what I suffer for you ! " Now- the trooper's joke has turned into sad earnest, for our country bleeds at every pore. In 'fact, as far as bleeding is concerned, I believe we have broken the record, and could now give points to Poland and Ireland. Take the annual expense of the Civil Service. Two millions and odd, amounting to nearly £4 per head on every man, woman and child in New Zealand. Say a man has a wife and six children not able to work. His share will be about £30. Put as much more on for interest on the loan, rates, taxes, insurance, &c, that people must pay whether they like it or not. That makes £60 per annum.^ Now although in theory the man with six children would appear to pay £60, he does not ii fact, because children do not consume a* much dutiable articles as grown up people. \But rely on it he pays about £30 per annum oyer and above, the legitimate cost of food and clothing, and he cannot get out of it. How is tffia for being bled ? Suppose the man can only nHko £60 a year himself, and many & 'man maka6>o more. It then simply means that half 'what heSnakes is takeh^rom him, and but of this half «\thftJ benefit hegots is education for his childKo, always exceptrSg-th&t he has property ami. this property has been increased, , in value by the exp^ditnm on railways, roads, &o. But -if he has no property, or v "= f'aee jssituated in come out district where the Iana~»«: not increased iv value, then he benefits only by the education, and the remainder is a t dea< horse, Civil Service and all. This latter iten has grown to be a huge incubus on the country A kind of provision for sons of influential men, who are too proud to beg, and too lazj to work. Even this has a redeeming featurt about it, ibecause tho money paid officials stil circulates in the country. The interest on the loan goes out of the country, and is uttorlj lost to us. Not content with this we spend th( money we. have, left in buying America.! furniture, English shoddy, and even Englisl jam and preserves. Where is our patriotism i Or have we got any? We should deserve better of our country if we dressed ourselves in flax mats Now, Mr Editor, we cannol stop the interest on the loan from going put of the country, but we can take-better care oi what is left.,. We ca*n put the taxation on those who benefited most by the expenditure ; ■ we £can "encourage home mad< manufactures, we can in short be patriotic, and patriotism is a quality badly needed by ouj bleeding country at the present time. Th< interest on the loan is not by itself a crushing debtj and had it been all 'wisely spent ii putting the country ahead no one need growl But we are being bled in a. 'number of othei ways, and interest on the loan forms only s small fraction of the whole. • ' . • Bushman. P.S. — Some, years ago a friend of mine whe lives in Mangapai, explained a plan of his owe for putting things to rights, in- this country This was for a party of 60 men, each supplied with a bag of dynamite to go down to Wellington when Parliament was in session and blow up the Parliament and all the Government officials. My friend' 8 project was then con/ sidered revolutionary, and I did not encouragf it. ■■*» ' /'

Sib,— An article appears in your paper ofihe 6th inst., over the signature of Kaisden. Aat calls for some comment.' It occurs to mathat election ' times tend to bring into oom/prominence the small and insignificant jioifion of society. At these times, people of a /certain stamp, who have no influence with any. person whatever, can annoy their betters by .getting abusive, mean, little squibs inserted m the press, for no reason but to annoyvmaking a pretence of writing for or against jv candidate. Of each a stamp is the article in question. - It must have been written, not because the gentlemen attacked are favourable to the candidature of Mr /Dargaville, but because they were appointed justices; thatyis clear on the face of it. As an emphatic: denial of Marsden's insinuation of appointing rogues and trfiifir TiTi'TrT'JMwb * ma y state that these gentlemen a^ verv^e?P eotable settlers here .« aild haTe both hpM'tha jost responsible elective offyces also that one feJjfltegf^"" [of the. first Dioucors of^pHMM^/jt is* slander to 'say they are any man's henchmen 1 If they aro favourable to Mr Dargaville, 1 suppose, th^y; are. too out spoken to deny it, (that will account for Marsuen's wrath) and are very good examples, in many respects, for Marsden trffollow if Tie has sense enough to see it in that light. As to the appointments, if Marsden whishes to know anything about them, he will find that they were recomended by a number of settlers here, to Mr Mitehelson, who gave the names to the Minister of Justice with his (I suppose), recommendation. As far as I am aware Mr Dargaville knew nothing at all about the matter. This is a fair statement of therfacts. I take it for granted that the new J.P.s are favourable to Mr Dargaville; so much the better for Dargaville, as they are both men of good sound judgement and I'tnay add, have a strong, party of their opiniot in this district. Hoping you will find room [for the above in your valuable paper.— l am, fee, Faxbhuiv "Waipu, August 15thJS87.

Sib,— l would resnectf ally through the mediun of your journal call the attention of the public 1 ** the f ollowingldistressingcalamity which occurtl last week :— A party of three young men haw been gumdigging at Whareora for the lisi few months, and had accumulated a considerable quantity of gum. On returning from work one day last week they unfortunately found that their whare had been burnt to the ground, the whole of their gum consumed, together with all their clothes and a month's provisions, and several pounds in money, so thai they had literally nothing left but what thej stood up in. This is a case moat deserving oj public sympathy, as the young men were botl [steady and industrious ; and to be suddenly deprived of all in the manner described is n>6sl calamitous. My object in writing to you is to arouse the sympathy of the Whangarei people, who have always proved themselves ready to assist in coses of distress, and to suggest thai either a concert in aid, or a subscription should be raised on their bohalf. ". I would gladly undertake the' management of the former, and should be iJmppy to hear from any lady oi gentleman who would be willing to contribute to a programme. If. the latter means would be considered the more desirable, I will gladly give my donation towards it. Hoping that, with your well-known sympathy in cases of distress you will publish this letter. I am, sir, yours &c. -'.-.-' 1 Heney C. Fuiajb.

Sib, — Permit me to correct a few errors that occured in your account of Mr Thompson's meeting held in Waikiekie : — lam made tp say " I supported the vote of thanks, as a few people had been foolish enough to give a vote of confidence to Mr Dargaville a few days ago, and if they now gave Mr Thompson a vote oi confidence it would make them look very fiolish &c, &c. The facts are these: — Mr Kiy in moving his amendment said, "Mr Thompson being an uutried man and a compafttive stranger to most of us he thought- a vote of thanks the most suitable and if Mr Thompson ia returned and comes before us three years hence deserving our confidence that will be the time to give it to him." In seconding Mr Kay I said*" a- vote of thanks was most Buitabb to give as a vote of confidence really meant nothing, and was often misleading, instancing two meetings in a neighbouring district Jeld on the same day, at which a vote of confidence was given .to the both candidates by Jne same people, which I thought looked ratbar foolish, arid I said'the only test to our confidence was to be found in the ballot box. I have not time ; to deal with the rest of the report but all _ relating to myself in it is equally misleading. Be good enough to give publicity to the above and oblige.— Tours, &c. {. EoBBBT NBVXMB. Waikiekie, August 17th 1887.