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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3771, 16 August 1883, Page 2

The Corporation is being made to feel_ that in occupying its present offices it is not lying on a bed of roses. It was thought that, in negotiating for their occupation, the Corporation had but one Minister to deal with, and it was hoped that he had been to some extent conciliated. But now another enemy has arisen, worse than the first, in the 'person of the Minister for Lands, who sets up a claim to the ground on which the Government buildings stand. This august personage would not have been heard of, probably, in connection with tho matter had not the Corporation entered into a contract to have a fire-proof safe erected. This work necessitated some bricks, gravel, and stones to bo placed on the ground, and it was then that tho majesty of Imperial rights asserted itself. The Corporation was informed that the Government would not allow the proposed to be made to the buildings, and to make the matter perfectly clear the gates leading to them were locked. The work has of course to be suspended, for no cart can now enter the grounds. The treatment the town and Corporation have received /it the hands of the Government since 187G has been little short of scandalous. To the shame of the Hall-Whitaker-Atkinson Ministry it must be acknowledged that the only fair treatment Napier has received since Abolition was from the Grey-Sheehan Administration—an Administration that owed this part of the colony nothing. If wo can bo reconciled at all to the apparently unreasoning opposition of the member for Napier towards the Government, it will bo by the unreasonable hostility that Ministers show to this town and district. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and if supporters and friends are converted into uncompromising opponents Ministers have themselves to blame.