The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3530, 31 October 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1882.

When the announcement was made of the appointment of Sir Arthur Gordon to the Governorship of this colony we were one of the few who called attention to that gentleman's general un6tness for the office. Our repeated remarks on this subject, and our criticisms upon his administration at Fiji, at length drew upon us the censure of more than one journal in this colony. Our esteemed contemporary the Wellington Post was the loudest in claiming for Sir Arthur a fair trial, and in condemning judgment upon him before he was tried. It is no satisfaction for us to know that our predictions have been verified; that Sir Arthur Gordon proved to be the most unpopular Governor this colony has ever had ; but it is satisfactory to us to be able now to extract the following from a leading article in the Post:—"Everybody knew quite well before he came that he would inevitably prove a total failure. When articles from Fiji journals rejoicing at his departure, and prophecying evil times for New Zealand under his eway, were reproduced in this colony, we protested against his being prejudged, and urged that as the appointment had been actually made he should at least have fair play and a fair trial before he was condemned. * * * We soon bad a specimen of our new Governor's capacity, and from first to last be continued to render himself more thoroughly unpopular than any other Governor has ever been, or perhaps ever will be, in New Zealand, where the people are always willing and anxious to like and esteem the representative of tbe Sovereign, and to make his sojourn among them mutually pleasant. Sir Arthur Gordon has departed unregretted, but he is not above drawing half bis very handsome salary for work which he does not do, and which another man does for him. The colonists have to " grin and bear it." That, however, does not make the matter any less a scandal and a wrong. And it is a gross scandal and a grave wrong to New Zealand that its Governorship should be treated as a mere sinecure office, capable of being held by an absentee. We say plainly that it is a disgraceful and inexcusable transaction. There is no conceivable excuse for granting six months' leave of absence od half-pay to a colonial Governor, whose whole term of office is only five years at the most. If he wants such a holiday let him take it in tbe interval between one Governorship and another, and not at tbe expense of those whom he doesn't govern, although, by a legal fiction supposed to do so. in the present case the fraud on the colony is the more glaring, inasmuch as it was notorious that when Sir Arthur left New Zealand he left it " for good," and yet the Imperial Government tell the colonists that they must go on paying him for half a year after he has finally ceased to be in any way connected with them. By this gross and corrupt abuse of official patronage they have played direct into the hands of those who are seeking to bring about the disintegration of the Empire, for they have provided a definite and substantial grievance to be harped on. We should be glad to know that the New Zealand Government have made suitably strong representation to the Home Government on the matter, and that they are devising means so prevent recurrence of such an abuse, at least to the extent of " stopping the supplies."