The Evening Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1875.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1677, 3 July 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1875.

Fer th» cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong tint needs resiutuus %0t tha fmtnre In the distance, Am* Uw c*od that we can a*.

The action, or rather the inaction, of the Harbour Board with reference to the stoppage of Wynyard Pier^ Short-street, &c, by the General Government is to be regretted. And this regret may be caused not so much perhaps by the actual inconvenience and damage caused to the public heretofore using these thoroughfares, as by the evident admission of a questionable principle in the guidance of public bodies. For we believe it is admitted that this inaction with reference to the conduct of the railway authorities has been based on expediency, to wit, an idea-that just now it would be inadvisable tor the Harbour Board to quarrel with the General Government. It appears that it is expected the present rich endowments of .the Harbour Board may be increased by further endowments of foreshore of a valuable character, and the General Government will be moved on the subject. That success may attend the application, we sincerely andcordiallydesire. We believe that the valuable trust held by the Board is at present well and wisely administered, and that through the efforts of the Board, and especially the watchful zeal of certain memberg of it, with a hobby in that direction, the accommodation and facilities afforded in our waters will soon become commensurate with, our commerce and pretensions, and that every addition to the wealth of the Board will he so much additional means to this end. B u t if it is so that the hope of gaining such »dvantages from the friendship of the Genera\ Government has paralysed the action of. the Board, and prevented it from resisting the manifest wrong-doing of the Government in gelation to public interests which the Board is appointed to conserve, then we declare we see no difference between this and the system by which the great

bulk of the members of Assembly have been corrupted by the largesses, or equally potential hopes, held out by the General Government. It is the action of this principle in the minds of representatives in Wellington that has reduced New Zealand to its -present condition, and brought to pass a state of things in politics in which men have become like dumb driven cattle. If we are right in our surmise respecting the cause of inaction of the Harbour Board, the position differs indeed in this important particular, that its members have no personal interests to serve in overlooking the wrong doing of the Government in relation to the stoppage of these thoroughfares. No member will be benefitted a farthing by the grant of additional endowments however large to the Harbour Board, and it can be only zeal for this particular department of public service that is the motive cause. But we fail to see the difference in principle. The interests of those benefitted by the enjoyment of these thoroughfares is simply bartered for so much to the Government. We look on this as a •public evil, greater than the injury done by the stoppage of traffic ; and do not hesitate to say that it is improper in the last degree to throw on private parties the onus of proceeding against the Government for the restitution of public rights. It is for the abandonment of this principle of expediency and bravely and unflinchingly standing up for the right that Sir George Grey has won to him the confidence and respect of the people. He might say to himself, " If I humour the Government in this little particular I may get that boon." Instead of which he takes his stand on right; and we may depend upon it that this will be more effective and profitable that the temporary expedient of selling birthrights for a mess of pottage. The railway authorities have unquestionably acted illegally in thir case, and have become subject to daily penalties. The Harbour Board are the trustees of the interest impaired ; and the Harbour Board it is who should take action ; and no prospect of future endowments should paralyze their proceedings. lb is not reassuring to the public faith, when we find the deliberate action of a public body, in this abandoning a portion of the interests entrusted', for fear of offending a Government that holds in its hands the power to corrupt and bribe public bodies, as well as public men.