LAWRENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 8, 15 June 1888, Page 27

LAWRENCE.

(From an occasional Correspondent.)

Notwithstanding the severity of the weather and the almost impassable state of the roads, there was a fall master of the County Council here on Friday last. The financial condition of tbe Council is not at all a prosperous one, and, considering the drift of the times, the future of this important body is not one to be regarded with equanimity by the struggling settlers around here. The Council*! overdraft at present is excessively large, and, though there is an incessant talk of economics, there is yet wanting the thoroughness and resolve which alone can substantially lighten the burdens of the ratepayers. The difficulty with public bodies, as with individuals, ii to adequately realise that the times have changed, and, accordingly to gather strength to face the inevitable. The maintenance of a main road, carrying heavy traffic, through the country is, undoubtedly, a somewhat exhausting drain on the Council's resources, but no greater than similar bodies throughout the Colony are oppressed with Ine root of the evil lies in the administrative extravagance of the Council ; and the root, it may be remarked, is yet untouched. Bveu now the whole internal economy of the Council is conducted on a most sumptuous scale. It is true that the wages of rarfacemen and such umnfluential employees have been shaved down to starvation point, while the chairman and members conveniently take refuee behind a friendly Act of Parliament. From the period when the chairman s services were appraised at £300 a year, and other lordly pickings, and tbe members modestly contented themselves with a guinea for each attendance, down to the present, the administrative humours of the Couaeil are, in those dull days, very instructive reading. Until there is an infusion of what is popularly called " new blood, the condition of things in the Council will remain unchanged. The Waipori Deep Lead Prospecting Association asked the Council to hand over the Association's money, now in the custody of the Coudcil, to the Waipori Alluvial Gold Mining Company for the purpose of assisting that country in prospecting. The member for Waipori riding successfully resisted the application, and suggested that the money be expended in putting the bush road in repair, for the convenience of miners requiring timber, which was ultimately agreed to. The history of the Waipori Deep Lead Prospecting Association, though brief, was troubled, and had a most inglorious ending. The management, or by whatever high-sounding title it was designated, consisted, I believe, of all the local magnates of Waipori. men with a thorough knowledge of the work they had undertaken but unutterably factious. They had been liberally subsidised by the Government, and, had the business of the association been amicably conducted, the district might have been materially benefited. Dissensious, unfortunately, as to the methods of working, culminated in the usual newspaper squabble, aud the final collapse of the association. Had there been some form of authoritative government supervision, which there should be where public money was being disbuised, as in this case, the life of the association might have been prolonged ; as it was there was a considerable expenditure of money, with comparatively poor results. According to the returns received by tha Council from the three bank agencies in Lawrence, the gold purchased by those establishmerits during a period of two months, amounted to 1,968 ounces. In Boxburgh, in the same period, 267 ounces of the precious metal were unearthed „nd purchased by the Bank of New Zealand In connection with these return*, it seems somewhat strange that while tbe goli duty 13 receive I by the Cjuuty Council, miner's rights are issue Iby the the Clerk of the Court, or rather by his assistant Is there any reason why they could not be issued by the county officials / This is evidently a relic of toe days when we were engaged in recruiting our resplendent army of civil servants, which we are now disbanding with auch small ceremony— the days when sinecures of some kind had to be found for the friends of importuning politicians I,i these times, however, one would think sj glaring a piece of red tape would not be tolerated.

Mr. Michael Denneby, who has discharged the duties of gaoler in Lawrence for tbe past four years, has received notice that hia serves are to be dispens-d witn. Whatever credit may be due to the Government for tbe u^m: with which they have carried out their retrenchment policy, it must ba said, nevertheless, that their actions m that dnectiou are frequently inexplicable and open to grave suspicion. Mr. Dennehy, who has been thirteen years in the service of the prison department, is a man still in the vigour of life and good for as maay more years of active service. It had been arrange 1 that he was to be retained in his present position , discharging, when without prisoners, the additional duty of police constable. The official mind at mtst turns a very variable quantity, subsequently changed, and decided that Mr. Djnnehy must make way for -'a younger man " It may be interesting on another occasion to refer to thd influences that caused this unexpected re- action. Mr. Dannehy has always borne a very high character as an officer, and being, as I have said in the pnme of life, full of experience, and thoroughly reliable, his removal cannot be regarded otherwise than as a gross piece of in] s ice, and a loss to the particular branch of the service to which he belonged. Those who have had the pleasure of Mr. Dennehy's acquaintance will be sorry to hear of his departure from here. A man of line principle, always in the van of every movement that afforded » prospect of relief to tbe Old Land : the pity is there are so tew of his a 1 amp about. Personally I wish Mr. Dennehy every success. There are dire rumours in the wind to-day of an impending financial sma,h, which, if verified, will cause much commotion throughout fuapika. The Hospital Board at its monthly meeting on t\iday evening had Hgain under consideration the difference existing between our two loca. medicos. Dr. Withers, who is prohibited from practising beyond a radius ot four miles from the hospital, veiy naturally chafes under tbe restriction and is desirous that it should be removed His claim is strengthened by the fact that his salary some time since

received a fearful mutilation through the agency of a few sordid individuals who have somehow crept into the Hospital management. On the other hand, Dr. Blair, who enjoys a monopoly, quite as naturally desires that the restrictions may be maintained. The outside settlers, mindful of their own interests, have repeatedly petitioned for the removal of the obnoxious restrictions. The Hospital Board decline to accede to this request, and so the matter stands. The feeling, it must be said, among the settlers that these restrictions shonld be thrown aside is very strong. Exclusive of the apparent nnfairness of the arrangement, Dr. Withers, in addition to being considerate in his charges, bears a very high professional reputation round here. Hence in a great measure the desire to enlarge the limits of his practice. A monopoly under all circumstances is objectionable, but amongst all the evils of this class a medical monopoly may justly be regarded as the most sinister. The persistent refusal of Dr. Blair to attend the hospital during the absence of the hospital surgeon renders any change in the present arrangement highly improbable. At the last meeting of the Board Dr. Blair expressed his willingness to give his services to the hospital, stipulating, however, for an acknowledgment of £100 a year ; this offer, it is scarcely necessary to say, was not entertained. If the Hospital Board are determined to preserve the present regulations, why not, in fairness to the public, raise the Doctor's salary, restraining him altogether from practising outside of the hospital, and in this way induce another medical man to enter the field, and so put an end to the present very undesirable state of things.

The Financial Reform Association is popularly regarded as a manifestation of the political re-action in progress here for some time. It is, therefore, viewed in certain quarters with a considerable degree of disfavour. At the last meeting of the Association the pro* ceedings were of a particularly exhilarating character. A special meeting had been called to pronounce upon the public insults which Mr. J. C. Brown had offered to the AB3Ociation. No sooner, however, hadjthe name of the political high- priest of Tuapeka been referred to, than a|few of his friends present became somewhat demonstrative, and endeavoured to break up the proceedings. There was much difference of opinion warmly expressed, and a rapid exchange of compliments ; but above all the clammr could be distinctly heard the voice of a local knight of the hammer, assverating with a wonderful rapidity of utterance, that " Brown was a man," a statement which no one l present seemed disposed to question. The climax was not, however, reached until an elderly gentleman present, a dispenser of drugs and such things, outstepping the bounds of decency and moderation, gave utterance to a remark which so operated on the feelings of the gentleman to whom it was addressed, that he summarily drove his aggressor from the room. The gentleman whoj performed this meritorious public service is the editor of the loca paper here. It is impossible to stigmatise in becoming language tucb. conduct as this on the part of Mr. Brown's friends. And it is passing strange that a public man of 25 year's standing should find it neoessary to resort to such foul practices. There is, however, some consolation in the thought that political success, depending on sucb discreditable influences, cannot, in the natural order of things, exist very long.