The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. MONDAY NOVEMBER 8,1886. THE “STARK” INQUIRY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1401, 8 November 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. MONDAY NOVEMBER 8,1886. THE “STARK” INQUIRY.

The result of the Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances of the Stark purchase has resulted, as we all along felt confident would be the case, in the complete exoneration of the officers of the Government from all suspicion of complicity in a swindle, and, it is needless to add, of the Government itself from the monstrous suspicion, which some of their political opponents were rabid enough to permit themselves to entertain, of having been parties to a nefarious transaction. After reading the evidence it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the colony has been made to pay at least double, perhaps nearly three times, the intrinsic value of the land taken at the North Shore, Auckland, for defence purposes, but even the vendor, Mr Stark, can, it seems to us, be accused of nothing worse than smartly turning to bis own personal advantage the circumstance that his property happened to be the most desirable site for the harbor defence works. No doubt but for this circumstance be would never have been in a position to allege a bona fide offer of jQ 16,000 for land which ajet before he would have sold for but it does seem quite feasible that the offer of by Alison was made bona fide under the belief that if Stark sold to him at that figure he (Alison) could sell again to the Government at a substantial advance. If this be the case then there was no complicity between Alison and Stark to work a swindle, and all that can be said is that the circumstance of Alison’s offering jQ 16,000 gave Stark a point of vantage which assured for him at least that sum upon the land being taken by the Crown. But for that offer having been made, the Government could have taken the land under the Public Works Act, and a Compensation Court would no doubt have fixed the value in correspondence with that of adjoining lands, and the Crown would probably have had to pay at most some but in view ot that offer and of the fact that the Property Tax Assessor had (being aware ot this) assessed the property at j£i6,oco, no Compensation Court could, we think, have awarded Mr Stark a less sum than ;£i6,000. It was a blunder to have let it transpire that the land in question would be required for a battery site (the land should have been taken by proclamation concurrently with that fact being made known), audit was that initial blunder which has taken an unnecessary or from an overtaxed country and transferred it to Mr Stark’s pocket, but no blame attaches to the Government beyond that of a want of smartness in this matter. Those who really come out badly in the matter are they who in their anxiety to sling mud at Ministers did not hesitate to impute the most shameful conduct not only to Government officers but to the Government itself, and we entirely concur! with the remarks of a Thames exchange (the Advertiser) upon this aspect of the case. Our contemporary says :—“The pot-house suspicions of the secretary of the committee, Mr Phillcox, and others of that ilk, look ghastly and shameful when spoken deliberately at a formal enquiry. They are positively shocking, and we hope actionable, when levelled at the highest officers of the Crown, men whoip the people have by their deliberate choice, delighted to honor, who are entrusted by the Parliament of their country with the administration of the Government, and who should be * like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion.’ No one, capable of judging the motives of such men, would for a moment suppose them capable of accepting a : paltry bribe from Stark. The thing is the allegation shameful, the mere suspicion demoralising and injurious to the colony. The' character and reputations of all public men are

public property. Not lightly should such small creatures be permitted to assail it. In the exigencies of parly Government, here as elsewhere, political jobbery, we fear, is not unknown, but this is the first occasion on which deliberate, vulgar, petty bribery has ever been charged upon high officials. We trust for the reputation of the colony it may be the last.”