PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING,

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6485, 30 September 1892, Page 2

PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING,

GISBORNE, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1892 THE LOAVES AND FISHES. Is the Public- Works Estimates the sum set down for expenditure in the Poverty B.iy district amounts to L*2,400, which i 3 a trifle as compared to the requirements of settlement or to the sum to which this part of the colony is justly entitled. Mr Seddon, in the Works Statement, said that it was proposed to devote L200,0()0 of the estimated surplus revenue of the year to public works purposes. If that money were divided on a population basis, this district would be entitled to a largerexpenditure than itis now proposed to make If the money '[were allocated according to relative productiveness of Mie different parts of the colony almost double the above sum would come this way. However, our greatest grievance is that there is no compensation for the loan expenditure, past, present, and proposed, with which other districts are favored. Ac cording to the Public Works Statement, the colony is losing about L 300,000 a year on the railways—that is to say, the net earnings of the lines are short of the interest charged by that amount. The people of the East Coast have to contribute to the deficiency in equal proportion to their fellow-colonists who are served by the lines. In regard to many of the railways, it is a fiction to call them reproductive works, as some have not even paid working expenses up to the present time. Some of the lines which it is now proposed to complete will most probably always be included in the category of unprofitable works. It would be a thousand times better if the money were devoted to opening up by roads country suitable for settlement. Perhaps the most shameful waste of public money in this colony has been the construction of a railway between Greymouth and Hokitika. There is not the slightest hope that tho line will ever pay working expenses. The population of the district which it svill serve is steadily diminishing, owing to tho yield of gold having fallen off. Hokitika is only a shadow of what it was for a few years after tho first gold rushes on the West Coast. There is no trade worth speaking of between it and Greymoutli. It is a long time since the first sod of the railway was turned, but the Ministers of Public Works who preceded Mr Seddon did not like the prospect, and the work was delayed. It was hoped that it would be abandoned altogether. But Mr Seddon is the Parliamentary representative of that part of the West Coast, and he is not the man to stick at the waste of public money to please his constituents. The question of his seat had to be taken into account. The result is that the Hokitika people will soon have the railway running. The work up to the present has cost L 125.000. The total before completion will likely reach L 150.000. The outlay is an absolute waste, — a discreditable job without a redeeming feature. Mr Seddon says he thinks the Government may fairly claim that the allocation of the funds has been fair and reasonable, and, under all the circumstances of the case, not an unsatisfactory one. With the means at his disposal he could scarcely have done worse. Under the proposals, L 20.000 is to be expended on the KtwnoKawakawa railway, and L 15,000 on the Hulensville line, and no less a sum than L 48.000 is to be allocated for the Rotorua line. None of these works will give a return on the outlay. There is something to be said in favor of the Rotorua line, for it will afford more rapid and and cheaper access to the Hot Lakes district ; but the requirements of tourists should be considered very subordinate to the needs of settlement. A good coach road should be deemed sufficient for tourist traffic. Another start is to be made at the northern end of the main trunk railway through this island, though the section already completed is lying idle, there being no traffic available. The Grahams-town-Te Aroha line is to be proceeded with to completion, with the certainty that the whole outlay will be most unprofitable for the State. Tho Te Aro extension at Wellington has been undertaken against tho opinion of the Railway Commissioners. The amount proposed to be voted this year for the work was not given in the statement as telegraped, but as large station buildings are to be erected, the extension is bound to be a costly business. Very few of the railway works now proposed are required. The proposed expenditure could be cut down by more than ono-half, and the development of the resources of tho country would proceed at an equally rapid rate. The days of political railways are unfortunately not over yet in New Zealand. Mr Seddon has framed the Public Works estimates to catch votes, and he has executed his task with considerable skill.

I Professor Lichtwark holds a class lesson j in horsemanship to-pight. |

Messrs Humphreys and Davys notify that they have engaged the services of Ah* Robert Moore, who is to take charge of the farrier business of the firm. • The Waikohu Road Board require tenders to* be in at their office, T« Kai-aka, by one o'clock to:inorro\v for the removal of slips on the Te Karaka- Waiapu road. Major C. D. Pitt sells at his mart at 11 to-morrow morning personal effects, furniture, &c, and at 2 o'clock at Stevenson's stables, horses and a waggon. Owners of horses are again reminded that nominations for the Poverty Bay Turf Club's Spring Meeting close to-morrow (Saturday) at 8 p m. at the Masonic Hotel. The Pressa Association agent at Auckland wires:— The s.s. Te Anaii sailed South at 1.30 this afternoon. Passengers for Gisborne : Misses Warman and Maunsell ; Messrs Brown, Toinlin, and Matthews. His Excellency the Governor has consented to become the patron of the recently-formed Caledonian Society, and in notifying his acceptance expresses his best wishes for the I success of the Society. The auction sales of wool, skins, hides, and tallow, advertised by Messrs Common, iShelton and Co. and Williams and Kettle, and the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., for to-morrow morning, commence at 10 o'clock at the stores of the firstnamed firm. A meeting to consider the necessary details for the formation of a Ladies' Club in Giaborne will be held at noon tq-morrow in the hall next the City Rink. . The meeting will have to decide upon the acceptance or refusal of an offer of chambers, which are said to be eonvenientand suitable foT the- purpose. In spite of the threatening aspect of the weather, between 30 and 40 ladies and gentlemen assembled yesterday at Lavenham to indulge in their favorite pastime of a quick 40 minutes over fences. The- going ■was surprisingly good, only some half dozen riders dissolving partnership with their nags during the affair. After partaking of the hospitality of Messrs Sunderland and Chambers, a general move was made for home, and in chatting over the day's sport a general consensus wav expressed that those who did not turn up had missed a real good thing. The Weathek. — Weather forecast for 24 hours from 9 a.m. to-day : Wind between north-east and north and west at all places. Sea increase on both coasts. Telegrams to expect strong northerly -winds have been sent to all places. Synopsis of last 24 hours : Very little movement of the barometer and fine weather everywhere. There has been frost in the Waikato district and in some parts of the South Island. — R. A. Ednvix. The Wairoa Guardian writes : — We learn that Air John Couper, as owner of the s.s. Lily, has made arrangements with the Tiniroto settlers whereby their supplies will be brought to Wairoa from Napier in that vessel, and carted from Frasertown to Tiniroto — by Mr T. Clunie's teams — instead of being obtained as heretofore from GLsborne, and that the settlers will save £\ per ton by this arrangement. We commend Mr Couper for his enterprise ; this is a step in the right direction. We always advocated that the Tiniroto traffic should come this wav, the road from Wairoa being so much shorter and better than that between Tiniroto and Gisborne. If the Wairoa County Council, instead of being drawn into flittering away so much money on the Turiroa-Rainoto road, for instance — which is mainly used by the Ramoto natives— and other similar abortive works, had spent a larger portion on the improvement of the Reinga road, the traffic to Tiniroto would have been greatly increased and facilitated, to the mutual benefit of that place and Wairoa.