The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: FRIDAY, JAN. 12, 1876.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 131, 12 January 1877, Page 5

The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: FRI DAY, JAN. 12, 1876.

jN'ow that Mr Maitland lias been Appointed to the Cornmissionershin of the Wast*°. Lands, our Milton friends consider the rime opportune to agitate for having- a Kesidrut Mugistra'-e appointed all to. themselves. The matter was brought up in the Municipal Council, and a*" large uml influential" deputu-. ■tion was appointed to wait upon the Hon. George M'Lean to urge the claim. Two of ths gentlemen named --attended. to thn duty, nnd Messrs Dyer, Mayor, and J. X, Brown, J.P.,-7pre-•sented themselves -at the offioe .of -the Hon. the Commissioner of Customs nn -Saturday lasr, Uf course, on'y one ?, a--gistr;-.te was wanted for Miltoa. but it was just possible thatther-n might be another required fur the Clutha, or soma -dtherdismct, nnd, at al lev-. nts,ir. seemed a wise course to give the (Jonimis^i-iner * choice. The two gentlemen, no doubt, considered themselves fully qualifie 1 to undertake the duties of li M. for Milton or any other, place, nnd seeing that the enormous expense the maintenance of Provincial institutions formerly entailed had been done away with, they fully anticipated that one of them, if not both, would return to "the city of the plain" in full possession of the credentials of the coveted office. They -saw the Commissioner and advocated their cause most eloquently, it is said.. Mr M'Lean is reported to have replied that Mr Carew was able to do all ihe work,. that Mr Maitland- had been ■put in another position, and the Government did not propose to appoint anyone to the office Le recently held. The facilities for travelling, he argued, were now such that Mr Carew could -attend to the business of the district -without difficulty, and the Government were bound to economise as much as possible. ; This was somewhat , diibut it will probably have the effect of opening the eyes of the applicants to the practical effects, of Abolition, of which they seem to have been lamentably ignorant in the past. The great aim of the aboli* tionists, of course, is to establish local self-government : that is, local government provided and paid for out of the revenues locally raised. Thus, if Milton requires and must have a Uesident Magistrate, it. must furnish the salary. The General Government is obliged to economise :-that is, it mus,t have all. the revenues for central purposes in Wellington. This is another instance of the practical working:, ot Abolition, and under the new regime,* as thus explained, we presume Milton will fleet to put up with one day a week, of Mr Carew, leaving small jobs to be attended to by the great unpaid, of which latter it has a' -superabundance. We .confess we would much have preferred that Mr M'Lean had seen bis way at once to appoint either Mr Brown or Mr Dyer to the Milton bench, and we hope that, under the circumstances the, Milton Municipal. Council will remove the obstacle to this hy voting the -necessary salary. Then Mr Carew would have more of his time to devote to the Clutha business, and in all likelihood would take up his residence permanently amongst us. This arrangement would- suit us admirably, as we are not ambitious -of seeing, local disputes increase to -such. an extent as to render* the individual attention of an H.M.-, in the;.Clutha district necessary. He would always have, plenty of time to take a run up to Lawrence, .once a week to attend to the business there.