The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 3.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 501, 3 May 1881, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 3.

It w r ill be remembered that at the last meeting of the Akaroa Borough Counei Mis Worship the Mayor brought under the notice of that body the fact that three communications from the Council to the Government on the sub'ect of the extra charge of sixpence on telegrams to and ftom Akaroa remained unansweredHis Worship was instructed by the Council to telegraph to the Government on the subject, and on the following morning he despatched the following telegram :— Akaroa, April 28th, 1881.. Bon. Commissioner Telegraphs, Wellington, Town Clerk has written Departmsnt three times re telegraph charges without receiving reply. Pray favor us with answer. Jam..s D. Garwood, Mayor. Most persons would no doubt think that this telegram would be as unproductive of any good effect as the previous communications from the Council on the subject. For our own part, we thought the Council had done right in demanding an answer of some kind from the Government, but we fully ex- { pected that the reply would be of the j usual stereotyped character, a supply of'

which are kept in stock in tho different branches of the Circumlocution Office, such as " The Minister regrets," etc., or " The question shall receive attention," ond so on. We were, therefore, agreeably surprised when yesterday morning the Mayor showed us the following telegram, which he had received on Sunday morning : — May 1, 1881. His Worship the Mayor, Akaroa. 1 will discontinue extra charge of sixpence on telegrams to and from Akaroa as soon as requisite Order in Council can be issued. Walter W. Johnston. We congratulate Mr Walter Woods Johnston on one of the first of his official acts being the removal of a crying injustice. At the same time we cannot compliment the Government on the transaction all through. If there were anygroiuids for the imposition of the additional charge, they have long ceased to exist, as we have shown more than once in these columns. The yielding at last to repeated importunity reminds us forcibly of the parable of the Unjust Judge. Or is it done because the session is so near at hand ? In any case we have got justice at last, and we suppose we must not scrutinize too closely tho motives prompting the concession. A moral to be derived from the issue of the affair is that public bodies should never tire in representing local grievances to the Government, and that they should do so directly. A Minister can hardly persistently ignore representations made by the head of an elective body, speaking as he does in the name of the community. Such communications have one advantage over those made by a representative in that they are entirely of a non-political character, and are, therefore, not likely to be either refused or acceded to on political grounds. The prompt manner \:\ which the Mayor has |laid . this communication, through our column-, before the public is in pleasing contrast with the conduct of certain of our public men on similar occasions. An absurd notion appears to prevail among some of them that all communications to a public body must first be laid before the members of that body before the outside public—the ignobile vulgus —are to be allowed to ha/c an inkling of their contents. At a late meeting of the County Council.a member went >o far as to denounce the publication of a letter addressed to the Chairman as a " breach of of privilege." The " bottling up" doctrine will not hold water for a moment. All public men, from Borough Councillors to Prime Minister hold their position by the breath of the public, It is inconceivable that any matter can concern them Hone, and not their constituents, and, we may say. creators. We are glad to find that under the present regime, the contrary doctrine prevails, and the " privilege " rubbish has been formally banished from the precincts of the Akaroa Borough Council.