The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. MONDAY, JULY 9, 1883.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1295, 9 July 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. MONDAY, JULY 9, 1883.

" Majob Atkinson, during his long term of office as Colonial Treasurer, has acquired a certain kind of celebrity for his Financial Statements. His earlier budgets, from which he chiefly derived hig fame, were, however, very different from the needlessly labored and en--7 ijnmbered productions of the last few Wears. Following" the model of Sir Julius Yogel, the; Statenaents. of tJie -sftajox'a few, first tMuts of office were • tolerably clear ana unvarnished expositions of the public finances, but as V time has crept on, one hobby after \ : another, has been drawn into the for ventilation, until its true design has been almost wholly lost sight • <of,or, at- air events, very materially im.paired. It , was during the Treasurership of Sir Julius Yogel that the ' system of gratuitously telegraphing the Financial Statement to all newspapers throughout the Colony was instituted, the desire being to lay before . the public a review of the finances of : the Colony in such plain and unpretentious language that anyone might understand. That the Statements of recent years have not accomplished • this end must be generally admitied. They have been gradually growing in wordiness and economic abstractions, Until the ordinary reader is fairly lost in a maze of meaningless details. The Statement of 1881 was loaded with a long dissertation upon local government. Last year, the question of poverty and pauperism engrossed the fertile brain of the Colonial Treasurer, and this year, we have a kind of prize essay demonstrating the commercial and industrial decline of the Colony. The questions there broached are undoubtedly important ones, and worthy of the highest consideration, but we do not sec that they should nyf^i'-ily

form pail of the Financial Statement. The Wellington Post, usually aveiy pliant Ministerial or^ius cannot help Vultin- ma mild form of motesfc against the vagaries of the Major. Our contemporary says :— " We must take leave to danmr very decidedly to the growing practice of overload ing the annual Budget witli an enormous mass of miscellaneous details, whicl>, however valuable and interesting in themselves, however ably compiled and presented, and however instructive they might be on deliberate perusal in print, are almost totally incomprehensible when delivered viva voce, owing to the impossibility of following such a mass of verbal statistics, and consequently tend to impair tho lucidity of the Statement, to confuse the minds of its hearers, and to diminish the cordiality of its reception. Tliis was very noticeable last evening when the whole affair seemed to fall remarkably flat, considering its importance and intrinsic interest. It would be much better to relegate all these very elaborate and exhaustive details to a printed appendix, and by confining the Statft- , ment itself within narrower limits, to enhance its force and point As to the reaulta of the past year's operations, they are very much what was expected." \

The Norwich Fire and Marine Insurance Company have established a branch of their business in Reef ton, and Mr R. j Chattock has been appointed agent for j the Inangahua. The death is announce'! of Mr Thomas A. D. Brooks, of Ahaura, carrier. Deceased was an old and respected West Coaster, having been one of the pioneer carriers on the Holritika and Rosb road. Latterly he has been engaged in the trade between Greymouth and Reeftori, and was known as a steady and careful driver. His death was very sudden and unexpected, as he was driving on the road on ; Friday last, and apparently in good health. ' He leaves a wife and fain ily. A public meeting of|the Reef ton Railway League will be held in the Oddfellows Hall thiss evening, for the purpose of passing certain resolutions in reference to the East and West Coast railway. There . is just one matter in regard to the subject I that it may be well to call attention to. It is one of considerable importance, and seems to have beenEentirely overlooked by the Railway Commission. In the schedule to the Three Million Loan Bill of last session, LIBO,OOO ia set down y for the extension of the main trunk line northwards. Now, unless this vote is to be diverted to some other purpose, which is hardly likeiy, the money must be expended in carrying the main trunk (Amberley) line onwards to the Red Post. To this undertaking the Government and ; the country Btand absolutely pledged, and therefore in estimating the length of the Lewis Pass route, the distance should only 4 be computed between Brunnerton and the 1 Red Post, and not, as the Commission has calculated it, between Brunnerton and the present northerly terminus of the main trunk line. The difference is an all important one in favor of the Lewis Pass . route, beinging it closely within the ■ length assigned to the route via Arthur's Pass, while the character of the country ' to be traversed, and collateral advantages, are altogether in favor of the former route. The Commissioners give £1,337,000 . as the cost of constructing the line via Arthur's Pass, and £1,624,000 as their es--1 timate for the Lewis Paas line. It will be obvious, however, that as no railway . system to the West Coast can be perfect . which does not connect with the Inanga- • hua and bring Westport within easy dis- : tance, to the former estimate must, for purposes of fair comparison, be added the 1 cost of a line between Brunnerton and Reefton, so that, even taking the Com- . missioners at their own figures, the advantages are still immensely on the aide of the Lewis route.