EAST COAST.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1147, 14 October 1880, Page 2

EAST COAST.

(from our own correspondent. ) I notice from some of your late files that tenders were palled and I suppose accepted by this time for keeping the East Coast Road in good -repair for a year. The distance between Gisborne and Wharekahika being divided into several sections, there is not the : slightest doubt that it is the very best possible way to deal with the question of keeping the road in repair, at all events it certainly is a vast improvement on the old system (if it could be called a system) of patching arid mending bridges, &c:, during the most inclement season of the year, every one on this Coast will no doubt feel very thankful to our member for Waiapu Riding for bringing forward such a motion in the Cook County Council, and also to the Council as a whole, for adopting it-; as no doubt the successful tenderers will keep the road in a better state than ever it was before, and if they succeed in doing . so they will richly deserve the than ks : of all travellers who ha^e gone through the "sloughs of despond" at present existing in many parts of it. Reductions are. the order of the day now, and the few Government servants there are on this Coast have all received notice of the ten per cent, reduction in their salaries. It will be severely felt by those who have large families to maintain. These gentlemen consider, and justly too, I think, that the reductions should have been carried out on a sliding scale, instead of a ten per cent, reduction all round) the Colony would have saved more by it too, besides officers in receipt of £200 and under per annum who have large families contribute a great deal to the revenue in various ways as they are large consumers of dutiable articles. There are many Government servants who were in receipt of salaries ranging from £150 to £200 per annum and had enough to do to make both ends meet, their difficulties are of course greatly increased by the reduction. Many people think, and not without reason, that salaries of £200 and under should not have been reduced- at all. It is manifestly unfair to take the same (ten per oent.) from these small salaries that is taken from salaries ranging between £500 and £1000 per annum, those Government officers who were receiving these - latter amounts can sport their carriages, and servants, and can afford to to have their female relatives arrayed in accordance with Worth's _ latest fashions for the purpose of attending the 'fAt Home's," &C;, given by the Governor's wife so as they may obtain a bow or a nod from a real live lady of title and distinction, these gentlemen live in the lap of luxury, and a. {ten per

cent reduction is a very different thing to them to what it is jko a man in receipt •of £3.50 or £200 a yejir who ia.ofteri at Ins \rits~ehd;to live oh it andpay : 2oa.-in the;£, therefore, it: would have ;.been;far mo'fe equitable arid fair-to have* carried out the reductions on a sliding scale;' Talking of gubernatorial parties reminds me that it is fashionable in the colonies to. ; . say Governor's .lady instead of Governor's wife) ;. the. Jatter is not only more correct but by far the better word in such circumstances, for snobbery, flunkeyism, and toadyism com"menfl me to a gubernatorial party, ladies are introduced and spoken of as Mrs Mil j or so and so and Mrs r jCaptain, &c, it is hard to say where' these notions first came, from, but I suppose, these grand danies imagine it is • the correct, thiiicr, or else they. might be mistaken for some of the smaller fry if they did not use their husbands titles in connection with their own name*, pluming themselves the while that this a,lo'ne must prove that they are not fmui the ranks of the " unwashed," many of them a^3ume tlie a-ir-js of tlioir superiors and delude themselves with the idea that they are giving the best possible proofs there is nothing plelbian about them. You have of course heard how Hurst's overweening conceit and vanity was taken down by the Earl of Pembroke in Auckland some time ago, but even after that he (Hurst) was nearly run over by a cab through rushing across a- stre.et.?to_; bow "to "Governor Boweri, whose carriage had just stopped on' the. opposite side, Sir George took no notice of the bone dust man, notwithstanding his frantic haste and Harrow escape, how crestfallen and mortified he must have felt, I am reminded of these incidents by seeing a paragraph in a Southern paper, stating that Hurst had acted in a most dignified manner on a certain occasion in the H«use, this is a mistake, as there is not an atom of dignity in his whole carcase, dignity indeed, it is exceedingly questionable if Hurst knows what true dignity is, there are many such as : he is in the colony who are at times similarly occupied of things they knownothing about.