The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 117, 31 August 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31.

There is a department in the General Government Service commonly called the Stores Department, which costs the colony about £2500 a year, exclusive of travelling expenses, which, iudging from experience of the past, must be something enormous. If we were to call this department by its right name, we should say it was a sort of refuge for destitute and incompetent officials, who, being fond of bounce and tall talk can here exercise themselves to a remarkable extent. It is as useless an institution as its constitution is bad. The Canterbury Government during the last 24- years, succeeded in carrying out successfully a tolerably comprehensive scheme of administration, but it had no officer with a large and expensive staff to fill so übsurdly useless an office as that of storekeeper, whose business it is to brand our public coal scuttles and fire-irons, our chairs and tables with a Government brand, lest dishonest officials should be found canying them out in their pockets. It will ■will scarcely be believed tliat the liead of this most important department was able to tear himself away from his responsible duties in Wellington a short time since, and was actually toiling at the Christchurch Railway depot for a period of about four months, teaching young men how " not to do it," for such has been the result of his labour, since, rumour has it, that the Stores Department of the Christehurch Railway is worse served than ever. We naturally ask, of what use is such an officer—at least here in the middle island. Let us appeal to our experience of the past, has it ever been known or even suspected that Government property has at any time disappeared from any department of the public service of the value of 205.? there is no instance on record of the kind, at least in Canterbury. Imagine what would have been said if such a salaried officer, enjoying, say his £850 a year, had alone, without a staff, been maintained among us. . Enquiries would have been made by some inquisitive member of Council as to the character of the Government employees, for surely that must be suspicious which justifies such extravagant waste for the trumpery protection o,f the public property. Better, if your public servants are to be suspected of fraud, that your Government messengers and door-keepers should be detectives, they could prevent or report the stealth of hours from the public service by unprincipled men, if we posess them, and this possibly would be more valuable than the fraud upon property. It is said there is a very large amount of property in the Stores Department oi the Railway, of iron and other goods in daily use, be it so, but why is the Government to be burthened with a huge warehouse, containing, possibly, goods worth many thousands ? and why are we to submit to the additional expense of maintaining some ' half-dozen other clerks at a further expense of about £1000 a year, when Uie whole or nearly the whole department could be advantageously swept awny ? We have-local-tradesmen, who are large importers of every imaginable article, and they could be invited to tender for the supply of everything needed, and in quantities to suit the necessities of the hour, they would become the storemen for the Government without any waste of time, and without the useless expense of stall' or depot, and we remove the temptation to fraud, at the same time. And surely the local auditors might be so far utilised

as to check, say once ;i year, an inventory of furniture and other effects, the incidences of taxlation have occupied much' public attention, but the incidental absurdities of the wielder of the Colonial Brand will by-and-bye occasion a little more than public attention. At a time -when hard working men are removed from the public service because of the necessity to economise, we have a right to demand that so useless, so costly, and so stupidly conducted a. branch of the public service should be at once swept away.

The second election of Councillors to represent the Burgesses in the Akaroa Borough Council is close at hand, The present Council, with the exception of the Mayor, whose term of office'extends to December, will resign in accordance with the 67th section of the Municipal Corporations Act 1876, on the 13th day of September next. While thanking these gentlemen for their past services, and for the care and attention which public affairs have received at their hands, duties which have been rendered doubly arduous and trying by reason of the novelty and strangeness attending a first experience, we cannot refrain from expressing our sincere trust that the citizens of Akaroa will, in the forthcoming , election, exhibit more public spirit and a livelier interest in the matter, than they shewed on the former occasion.

Important as this occasion was, a timidity, or shyness, concealed, in many iustances, as is often the case, beneath the g-arb of ridicule, pervaded the people of Akaroa on account of the novelty contained in the idea of the establishment of a municipal body in their midst. Yet, a little sober thought and reflection would have indisputably demonstrated the fact that it was at this first election, that their votes and suffrages should have been given to those men, who were more than ordinarily fitted to cope with the difficulties before them, and who would most readily have acquired in as short a space of time as possible that knowledge of the new duties necessary to enable them satisfactorily to transact the affairs of the Borough. All praise and honor then to those who had the courage to come forward and break the ice ! But, now that the ice is broken, now that the Council has, thanks to these gentlemen, been put into good working order ; now that there is no longer the excuse of novelty, and now that the works and improvements effected by the Council have so well proved its power and usefulness ; now, then, let the citizens of Akaroa bestir themselves, and elect men for the coming year, whose position and ability will not only ensure a judicious, practical, and business-like conduct of public affairs, but, also bring honor and respect to both Council and Councillors, and reflect credit on those who elected them. The Government of New Zealand, in creating Akaroa a Borough, has testified- its opinion* of its importance. It remains then, for us to show our appreciation of the honor conferred on us, by a careful selection of men to serve in our Borough Council, who shall maintain its dignity and their position, for we should never lose sight of the fact that it lies in the hands of the Burgesses to make it or mar it.