Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1885.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1167, 1 August 1885, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1885.

MEASURES, WOT MEN.

We haye — Heaven save the mark ! — a Minister of Mines, and, as it is the fashion now-a-days for every Minister to make a Statement, as the net result up to this time of his appointment, a " Mining Statement " has been read, with all due formality, in the House of Eepresentatives. Mr Larnach is undoubtedly an able man within the sphere of his knowledge and experience ; but in respect to the mining industry, we may quote from " Pinafore " and say "he means well, but he don't know !" His tour, or rather gallop, through the goldfields during the recess was very much like a big joke, although somewhat costly to the Colony, and the country is now informed in his precious Statement of what was perfectly well known before, in addition to a variety of toughish yarns, with which, to use the digger's vernacular, the honorable gentleman has been manifestly stuffed. We give himself and his colleagues credit for very excellent intentions, and they have certainly set themselves to endeavor to conciliate the goldfields' interest in the House ; possibly, their detractors may say, with a view to votes. Practically considered, however, the Government policy amounts to very little more than the giving a I stone where bread is asked for. Active measures are requested to push forward the development of the mineral resources of the Colony, and we have given us a Mining Statement ! Whilst in the matter of finance, one pocket is proposed to be filled with money extracted from the other. It is not considered polite, we believe, to look a gift horse in the mouth, and the Statement, in truth, hardly calls for serious criticism ; but we cannot help expressing surprise that a shrewd man of business like Mr Larnach should have committed himself to such fustian and bunkum as characterise the general remarks upon mining, and the penny-a-lining record of daily journey ings under escort of Mr Vincent Pyke, Mr J. C. Brown, and other leaders in the several localities. We are told that " the magnitude and variety of our mineral resources and the manner in which they are miscellaneously distributed throughout the Colony is sufficient reason for ! believing that New Zealand must become a great mining country." The grammar is hardly up to the exultation of the sentiment and style. A lot of statistics are given, showing that the total value of the mineral exports of New Zealand to the end of March last has been £41,882,094— a1l this without a Minister of Mines or a Mining Statement ! But this, says Mr Larnach, again mounting the high horse, i " is only a tithe of our mineral wealth ; for all practical purposes, a mere j sample of what in future may be done. We shall have before us the industrial i aspect, and that a district may be entirely changed by the discovery of a new ore. The lessoning of the cost of producing any valuable minerals by a small figure per ion may increase its application in manifold ways." This is not strikingly intelligible in substance, and is, moreover, grammatically obscure ; but we may presume that the intention is to assert the principle that it is the duty of Government, by all legitimate means, to lessen the cost 01 raising gold and other minerals by the improvement of communication and the easement of all burthens having a special incidence. With this principle, it need hardly be said, we entirely concur ; but we choose to think that the professions of the Government through the Minister of Mines are better than their practice, as exhibited throughout the financial proposals of the Treasurer. It may be, however, that the Mining Statement j indicates, amongst other things — good, bad, and indifferent — a late repentance , i and we are glad to note that " general lines " have been laid down on what it is proposed to assist the development of the mining industry. " The collection and diffusion of information regarding the general resources of the Colony " does not, at first sight, appear to have any direct applicability, unless it is with the object of attracting capital. " Systematic and scientificn tific instruction in geology and mineralogy " is more to the point ; but we hope the Minister , is not under the delusion that such can ' be effected by peripatetic lecturers, however eminently qualified, or that a smattering of such knowledge cau be of the slightest practical utility. "Encouragement and assistance to prospecting both above and below the surface." We confess not to have very much faith in the results of rewards for prospecting j but it is, perhaps, a necessary concession to popular prejudice. What on earth, however, does Mr Larnach mean by the encouragement of prospecting in the air ? (above the surface.) There is a good deal of this sort of

prospecting, by the way, in the finance of his co l league, Sir Julius. More rational, .altogether, is tbe idea of giving " aid to local bodies to qnablo them to open. ;up communication 'through mineral districts by; roads ans .(tracks," aM£?«'kidft6\ water-suppl^'aind goldsaving apparathis.' r Tfi'wiese' directions much, we believe, may be done ; and we trust that the Minister will apply himself to do it, and not waste his time in the compilation of any more Statements/ • - " -• ' -->«'--'

The ImperiarParliament voted£3o,ooo as a u marriage grant to the Princess Beatrice tne other, day ; But'before the sum was voted a good deal of opposition was given by, some of the Liberals. Royalty is a costly appendage to the Imperial system of government, and, although the expenses of the Court of the Queen of falls far short of those of the Imperial Court of the Czar of all the Russias, still the money votes are rapidly developing " such a tendency towards annual increase that Democratic statesmen are beginning to question the legitimacy of the claims of the Royal Family to such enormous sums of the public money. Her Majesty's civil list amounts to £385,000 per annum, and, with the annuity of £6000 just voted to Princess Beatrice, the total annuities amount to £185,000. Over half-a-million annually for the maintenance of an ornamental figure-head to the State-ship is a considerable item, and as the noble scions of Royalty show a wonderful tendency to increase, before the Queen's grandchildren and their cousins and aunts are provided for, several millions of State revenue must be diverted from their legitimate, channels. The debates in the House of Commons on this latter addition to the accumulating burden were at times of a lively description, and when such iconoclasts as Labouchere hurled their invective against those idols which the people have been taught to worship, Royalty must have perceptibly shuddered. The Radicals maintained that the only claim which Royalty had upon the State for maintenance is in virtue of an arrangement made in 1660, when Parliament took over the charge of the army and navy, and along with them the Royal estates, and settled a civil list upon the sovereign. But the entire revenue of Charles I. was not more than £800,000, and out of that he had to maintain the army and navy ; so that, in the opinion of the Radicals, the present successors to public beneficence have no just claims to such large sums of money, on the strength of the title of Royal estates wrongfully, as they infer, wrested from an ancestor. Even Mr Gladstone said that his Government had come to the conclusion that the whole system of these grants and allowances must now be sent to a Committee of Parliament for examination ; so that the tide of public opinion is beginning to set against the hitherto unchallenged privileges of Royalty. To some poor souls, who know no higher subject of veneration, the sovereign is a peculiar object of idolatry, and to even so much as dare to curtail Royal rights, in the slightest degree, ia looked upon as sacrilege of the most terrible kind ; but unfortunately for such, the broad tide of Liberalism is sweeping before it even that divinity which doth hedge a king about, and revealing him as only a man after all. In accordance with the sentiment of the age, therefore, it is but just that the expenses of Royalty should be materially reduced. While not going so far as Henry George, who said in a lecture in London that he would pension off ail widows with £200 a-year, including the widow on the throne, still we feel convinced that the expenses in connection with the Royal Family are out of all proportion to the part which they play in the Government of the nation.