The Westport Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 540, 10 August 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1869.

We have often wondered for what purpose, on this earth, the Provincial Treasurer of Nelson publishes his quarterly Abstract of Receipts and Disbursements. Occasionally wo have suspected that their publication might be undertaken with a view to some purpose in the next world—some probable reward in heaven—but we are beginning to fear that even the achievement of that object is a very remote contingency. Some people might even be disposed to insinuate that, in the Abstract of Rewards and Punishments, the Provincial Treasurer might find what we shall leave his own imagination or the imagination of our readers to suggest. To restrict ourselves to his fate in this world, we may say at once that wo it would bo well for the interests of the Province if either the holder or the " system " of the offico wero occasionally changed. The Provincial Treasury is apparently quite as much an Augaean stable as is the Treasury of the Colony, and it is as neccessary, in the one case, that there should occasionally be introduced " a new broom," as it has been necessary (and beneficial,) in the other case, io have that useful domestic implement brought into requisition, as personified by our present Colonial Treasurer, Mr Julius Vogel. Time after time—that is to say, at the end of each quarter—we have been in tbe habit of receiving these distracting abstracts, and, with the assistance of an ingenious friend, have endeavored to abstract from them some slight

conception of the position of Provincial affairs. It has been the habit of this'friend to paste the puzzling thing on the wall, and, from some point of vantage, such as a heavy arm chair, to undertake the study of them seriously, seriatim, and under the combined influence of a meerschaum and a " mind conscious to itself of right." We regret to say that all the efforts of nature that have thus been made, even with these adventitious aids, have resulted in total and absolute failure. They have succeeded only in one thing —they have invariably induced a temporary aberration of intellect, which, exhibited by one's friend, is somewhat painful to behold. What a continuance of the practice might end in, it is hard to say. Our friend has commenced by already doubting the existence of such an element, in the affairs of the Province, as Ccmprehensibility. Who knows but he may end by disbelieving the influence, in the affairs of tho Universe, of a First Cause ? There is now before us the Treasurer's abstract for the quarter ended June 30th, in the present year. A mouth having elapsed between the end of the quarter and the publication of the paper, it might naturally be expected that the figures would, at least, be up to the nominal date. But, as usual, the Treasurer is all " behind time" with certain sections of his statistics ; or he and bis accounts are gradually getting into an irrecoverable and chronic state of " fog;" or the Nelson South-West G-oldfields are getting somo shocking bad treatment a<" the hands of the Province. The "disbursements" are, of course, always to us the most interesting half of the Treasurer's statement. Although we may sueer or sniff at the size of them, it is sometimes consoling to count the number of the crumbs which fall to us, the " dogs " of the West Coast, from the " rich man's table" at Nelson. Pursuing this arithmetical process with regard to the quarter in question, what do we find? Shade of Cocker! Will it be believed ? On the So nth-West G-old-fields there have been items of expenditure only two in number, and each too contemptible to bo coutemplated with anythiug but sighs for their size. Here they are, in all their significant insignificance:— Justice, .£3O 14 3 Land and Public Works, 3 0 0

Total, ... £B3 14 3 Justice—£So 14s 3d ! O that justico to the Nelson South West Goldfields—if Justice ever could be bought—were only purchaseablo at such a price ! We undertake to say that, were it so —even on the " truck " system, or by quarterly instalments—the money would be readily and regularly subscribed, and faithfully paid for the " pound of flesh." But, seriously, what has this woman Justice done that, in this quarter of the Province, and for the said quarter of the year, she should receive or require not even a seventh part of her cost when quartered in Nelson ? For there wo find the cost of Justice just is £745 8s 9d. " Turn we " to the " Land aud Public Works Department," and the comparison is still more odious. Here we have positively had expended, under the supervision of a " Department," and duly accounted and audited, the sum-total of £3 sterling. £3 on public works on the South-West Goldfields ! And £1,350 14s 3d on public works in Nelson ! Item—" compensation for land for roads," £230. Item—"lesser public works," £lll And so on, identical items ad infinitum. Now what does all this mean ? Is it really the case that this is all that has been spent on the Nelson SouthWest Goldfields ? Or is this all the Provincial Treasurer is, at the moment, able or called upon to account for ? If this be the only explanation, it is eminently unsatisfactory. If the accounts are kept quarterly, there is no reason that we san see why each quarter should not show, as nearly as possible, its own receipts and disbursements ; else what is the purpose of keeping quarterly accounts at all ? Giving the Treasurer the benefit of the humane presumption that he has not, in this quarter's accounts, included all his figures, what an extraordinary expenditure may appear against the South-West Goldfields in next quarter's accounts! We should then have two single quarters rolled into one, and, in digging parlance, we should probably have the three Nelson papers " rolling into " ns on the extravagant expenditure in the district.

In the statement of receipts there js equal inaccuracy. The revenue of

the GoldSelds is stated at £U4G. Now we have reason to know that, for the four mouths, March, April, May, and June, the revenue was more like £9000; and we imagine that, as in this instance, bo in others, it is in the degree of 9 to 1 whether the Treasurer's abstract is not, so far as regards tbe purpose of its publication, a numerical nullitv.