A Contrast.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 796, 31 March 1894, Page 2

A Contrast.

It is instructive to observe that at the Tery moment when the Liberal Premier of the Colony was listening to the story of destitution and distress poured into his ears by the gumdiggers and settlers in the North and pleading that the Government were without the means to give assistance to these people, His Excellency the Governor and party were setting out in the Government steamer Hinemoa upon a pleasure trip of five weekß' duration in the South Seas. It iB perhaps difficult to see the connection between these two things, and I am not BeekiDg to show a connection. My purpose is to point out the contrast which they afford.

There are on the one hand hundreds of working men who are anxious that work of Borne kind should be provided for them until an improvement in the price of kauri gam enables them to return to their pursuit of gumdigging. The Premier

says the country cannot do anything for them, and possibly he is right. On the other hand, there is an example of the expenditure of a substantial sum of money for the purpose of enabling Lord Glasgow and his friends to enjoy a picnic amongst the Summer Isles of Eden — at the expense of the taxpayers of the colony. Is this right ? Is it consistent with the policy pursued by the Liberal party in the past of hostility to all suoh expenditure of public monies to furnish entertainment for the favoured few.

The actual expenses of this trip in coals, wages and Btores, to say nothing of the champagne that will be drank, will not be much losb than £1000. Are the Government justified in making an expenditure of £1000 for Buoh a pnrpose ? I certainly think they are not. Do the circumstances of the oolony warrant the outlay? Well, I leave my readers to judge. Even one thousand pounds would go a long way to provide work in certain districts in the North where the distress is likely to be most seriously felt, and it would have been much more in keeping with the democratic principles which the Government profess if they had spent the money in this way rather than in saving the Glasgow pocket by sending his Lordship and his picnic party to the South Seas in a Government steamer to the manifest injury of private enterprise. There are comfortable steamers running regularly to Earotonga. It would have been fitting and proper if Lord Glasgow had patronised them by taking out tiokets for himself and his party in the ordinary way.