, 1874-10-17

local or foreign cOncern-and their mum
Der is said to be legiOn-must have been
reveling of late in reading, digesting and
discussing the long columns of the Proceed
ings of our little Parliament in the meet
ing of the 28th September, when the we'll
known proposals of the late Budget Com
mittee were discussed, the one to be with
drawn, the other postponed. Postpone
ment being the order of the day, as it
would appear, we have, in order to be
IN order, postponed the following simple
remarks on the proceedings till the whole
matter was before the public in the Off
ciaI form, and had been somewhat digested
also by those whose political digestive
organs are slower in their functions than
is desirable. The first item, the Draft of
Ordinance concerning the Scale of Medici-
nal Weights, naturally, did not excite
much interest, the subject being better
appreciated by doctors and apothecaries
than by the Council or the general public.
The question one would like to ask is
this If the reform was found to be q 6 good
thing in the Mother Country, why should
we have waited for it for 6 years. There
are other things waiting, but, Of course,
Rome was not built in one day. We sup
pose our readers will agree with us that,
if many reforms have been postponed and
buried, either by the Government or by
the Council and its Committees, some OF
which are t~earfulIy slow-working, the first
mentioned has been very laudably energetic
in promoting industrial enterprise.-We
aIludo to the Central Factories, of which
this is true, whether they are introduced,
as we still hope, or not.-But in respect
to the other reforms, those called for in
the aforementioned proposals of the
Budget Committee, the Government, it
cannot be denied, has been extremely
remiss. We are, however, now promised
that something shall be done, but that
something, if we are to Judge by the re-
marks made by His Excellency the Vice
Governor, will not be any thing great in
the way of savings, which are required,
but perhaps His Excellency only wants
to give us an agreeable disappointment"
We shall see.
But in our rambIe over the extensive
ground it may be advantageous to pursue
asomeWhat systematic course, and take In
hand item 2 before item 4. The second
item was, as our readers are aware, the
Discussion on Report from the Committee
which revised St. Croix Communal Ac-
counts for 197O-71. Had that been all,
we should have had nothing to say about
a formality of the kind, for OF course, the
excuses, whatever they may be, will be
sanctioned what else could be done at
this time Of day? By saying this much,
however, we protest against any interpreted
ton being put upon it as if the excuses were
not we'll accounted for, as the excellent
official report shows they were. Formal
ties are good things in their place, but like
other good things, you can get too much OF
them. This we mean to apply to the
treatment the proposal of the above Com
mittee received. Whether the Poor-House
scheme brought before the Council is Undue
form or not, it might have been better re-
ceived than it was by the Presidency. A
promise might have been made to take 1t
under consideration. Perhaps the subject
might be found to be deserving of further
ance at a future time, when our bettered
finances shall allow. Meanwhile the con-
siderations might have been made and the
matter might have conveniently entered