The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2995, 31 January 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1881.

The Hawke's Bay Jockey Club has scored another victory, and having made a cat's-paw of Mr Rolleston in the first instance, we must submit to that institution raking out its cbest-nute by means of Ministerial fingers. Before he leaves Napier, however, we should like the Minister of Lands to visit the Meanee reserve. An inspection of the ground would convince him of the error committed in locking it up as a permanent waste. We have recently driven all over it in a pair-horee buggy, and a more melancholy drive it is impossible to imagine. Here, within four miles of a town, is a public domain of over ninety acres in extent, dedicated to uselessness, and given over to neglect. Ninety acres of rich plain ia allowed to stand as a monument of imbecility and selfishness in the midst of a cultivated district. Mr Rolleston told the deputation on Friday that he took the responsibility of this act \upon himself. It is certainly something 'of which to be very proud. It is at-1

tempted to be shown that in-vesting this land in the hands of Jockey Club trustees the interests of the public had been studifd. But we will do Mr Eolleston the credit of believing that when be nominated the Board of Trustees he did not know what he was doing. He was unconsciously permitting himself to be made use of, and so cleverly did the Jockey Club play its cards that it was not till the Board was gazetted that the public learned for the first time that a shameless dog-in-the manger transaction bad been perpetrated. We are certain that the Public Domains Act was never intended to be worked to the injury of the people, but in this case a gross injustice has been committed under cover o< , the law. It has been asserted that the object of the recent effort to secure the reserve to the Corporation of Napier was to obtain a race course for the Racing Club, and that there was an undercurrent of selfishness beneath the apparent zeal of the Racing Club for the welfare of the borough. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that there was ; what of it ? If the Racing, or any other Club, be prepared to turn a wilderness into a public park, it is of little moment to the people who can enjoy the result of th? improvement whether the change was effected through pelfish or other motives. What we contend for is this : That a public reserve by the action of a Minister has been practically diverted from the purposes for which it waa set apart. The mouthpiece of the Jockey Club acknowledges that this is the case. The Herald says: —" The trustees cannot lease the reeerve to raise funds for its improvement, and, if they could, the rent tor fifty years would not make it a decent course. Cut in two by an overflow from the river, half covered with Band, and the greater part of the remainder swamp, it would take thousands of pounds to make a decent course there." The above admission and description show, first, that the trustees are powerless to turn the ground to any account; and, secondly, that a wilful perversion of the truth is not disdained to give a false impression of the character ot the land. Thereserve is not cut in two by aa overflow from the river, nor is one half of the land covered with sand, the other half being swamp. The deputation understood Mr Kolleston to say that nothing less than an Act of Parliament could undo the Order in Council vesting the reserve in the present Board, and that Parliament would not agree to anything of that sort. We did not know before tbat an Order in Council was as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. If it be so, however, we may be sure of this, that the Jockey Club, being quite strong enough in the House to hold its own, there will be no change, and the town will have quietly to wait until it can return members to the House who will prefer the interests of a people to the interests of a private institution.