AN AUCKLAND GRIEVANCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 810, 6 May 1910, Page 4

AN AUCKLAND GRIEVANCE.

Tiie people of Wellington must be rather puzzled by tho extreme concern which the Auckland public is displaying in' regard to tho Government House in that city. Our Auckland friends would really do themselves a service .if they set forth their case clearly, a thing which, no doubt because they assume that all the facts of the situation are understood by outsiders, they have not so far done* In the meantime they have one ground for complaint concerning the merits of which there can be no dispute at all. They have not been treated with candour by tho Government. The Hon. G. Fowlds informed a Northern member in the House last session that with ' regard to the Government House site at Auckland "nothing could bo done without legislation, so the whole question would come up for review next session." When the agitation over the dismantling of the premises began last week tho Prime Minister admitted and defended the Government's intention to close i}ho Government Honw, and added that some portions of the furnituro would be placed in the new Government House in this city and the" remainder in tho various Departmental buildings. This statement only encouraged the Auckland public to protest still more hotly against the Government's action. Me. Fowlds then joined in the controversy with a long and severe attack upon the attitude of our Northern friends, and he emphasised the Government's intention to close the Hoiiso and take the site for a now university building. In the meantimo, however, the Pnuifi Minister's attitude has undergone a considerable change. He declares that tho Government House was not being dismantled, that no instructions for dismantling it had been given, that if Parliament does not agree to establish a university on the site-the Houso will bo renovated and refurnished for the new Governor, and that, generally, "any representations made will be carefully considered." Such shuffling as this must be very exasperating to the Auckland public, and it will not assist to improve the Government's repute in places outside Auckland. The correct course, obviously, was to decide upon the proper thing to do in the first instance, and then to do it without regard to anybody's protests. The Government has adopted the worst possible ooui-se. Either it proposed to do the right thing and was turned aside from its purpose by its fear of offending a large public, or else it blundered into a foolish course at tho beginning and is now anxious k> retrace its steps, and to retrace its .iteps through fear of consequences rather than through a desire to do the rifrht, thing. It is not for us to .say which of those readings of the position is tho right one. But one of them must bo the right one. And in either case the affair is not to the Government's credit.