The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3766, 10 August 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1883.

The deputation of Hawko's Bay settlers and parliamentary representatives that waited upon the Minister for Public Works last week must have felt in facing the lion. W. Johnston as though they were trying to swim up a waterfall. From what we have heard of the interview the Minister was as rigid as a bar of steel, and seemed to do his best to show that he had nothing to give away to this part of the colony. He even went so far as to infer that the cry-out for a railway station at Napier was only prompted by a feeling of jealousy at Hastings getting a better station than we had here ! When this was repudiated with as much indignation as good breeding would allow, he wanted to know whether the claim was made on the grounds of population. The deputation said it was not, but it was based on the fact that the Hawke's Bay railway was one of the best paying sections in the colony, and that the station accommodation both at Napier and Waipawa was lamentably deficient. When the deputation supported their arguments by quoting the returns of receipts and expenditure, the Minister said he knew all those figures, and for a long time by his demeanour gave the deputation to understand that nothing they could advance would obtain for Hawke's Bay anything like a just proportion of public expenditure. Finding it impossible to get what they wanted they suggested that if Mr Carr's plans for the station were modified they would be partially satisfied, then the Minister thawed a little, and said he would think about it. He would not, however, listen +o the removal of the goods-shed, but agreed to got a report on the subject from the Resident Engineer; neither would he consent to the present station building being shifted to AVaipawa. When we heard that the deputation had waited on the Minister we said the thanks of the community were due to those gentlemen for their efforts on behalf of the Hawke's Bay public, and now wo know what they had to put up with at their interview wo think our thanks are doubly due to them. How gracious was the demeanor of the Premier and Colonial Treasurer to all and sundry who waited upon them down South, before the meeting of Parliament, is known to all. There were vacancies in the House to be filled up! When the " first gentleman of the nether regions" was sick he aspired to the character of a saint, and when modern Colonial Ministries require to strengthen their following in Parliament they can generally promise more than they can fulfil. KingSolomon found out that "a soft answer turnctli away wrath," and he was a monarch who evidently had had to do with many deputations. 'But it would seem that the Minister for Public Works has not laid to heart the portion of Scripture in which the ancient sovereign gave maxims for the guidance of future statesmen. Hawke's Bay and its grievances are relegated to the grumpy members of the Cabinet, and it is mighty little satisfaction we have been able to get out of either tho Hon. Mr Johnston or the Hon. Mr Dick. The fault lies entirely with Hawko's Bay. We have always been able to dig, but to beg wo have been ashamed ; had our character been the reverse wo might have rivalled the little Benjamin of the colony, or the sturdy beggar of New Zealand—Taranaki on the one hand, or Wellington on the other. But it has been our mistake, a mistake that was conceived when we obtained independent provincial government for ourselves, and which developed itself with our growth, to think that to be independent was to bo respectable. This erroneous idea was propagated by ouv first Superintendent, MrFitzGoraltl, was intensified under the rule of Sir Donald (then Mr) McLean, and culminated in its folly when our last 'Superintendent, Mr Ormond, handed over tho province to tho Central Government in a state of solvency, and with some thousands of pounds to its credit. And what have we got for it ? Absolutely nothing. Not even has it commanded for us the common respect of the Government; we are actually spurned by Ministers when we ask for the barest justice. Our streets have been unnecessarily encroached upon by the railway, and, while all our local governing bodies can have the free use of Government offices, the Corporation, which represents this borough, is only allowed on .sufferance to occupy what by rights is its own. This province, of all parts of the colony, is the one which Ministers regard as being safe to jump upon and to treat with contempt, while there is no part of New Zealand which has asked for less or given more, in proportion to its population, to the Central Government. Is it to be wendcred at that we arc provincialists, separationists, or anything else that may tend to wreck the present miserable system of administration ?