The Dunstan Times FRIDAY 1st FEBRUARY, 1867.

Dunstan Times, Issue 249, 1 February 1867, Page 2

The Dunstan Times

FRIDAY Ist FEBRUARY, 1867.

Beneath the rule of men entirely jvst, the pen is mightier than the sword!"

The late enquiry case at Alexandra together with the several complaints, removals, and changes of office, we liavp heard from other quarters—the result [doubtless of public 'necessity is an indubitable proof that the system of Gold* fields management is by no means a perfect one. The want of public confidence in goldfields' officers must be attributed to causes hitherto unexplained, and we have no right to ask ourselves how it all happens, and who is responsible for all the confusion, whether it is the head of the Goldfields Department, or the Government who persist in making injudicious appointments to satisfy party and political purposes. We rather think that the latter arc to blame—they having usurped the functions of the Secretary for GoldnVlds whenever ithas suited their vacillating policy to do so, and knowing that the responsibility of governing the Goldfields rests practically upon no one individual, have allowed a lax system to creep in which, gradually becoming worse and worse, seeks now to work its own cure.

Nothing is more dangerous to the safety of a kingdom than an army unemployed or disorganised, and it is equally so with an institution when its officers are not fully occupied, or when their duties are so indifferently defined, that it is difficult to say where they begin or end, or whether they belong to a subordinate or superior position. The duties of an officer-in-charge, or as " Dunedin Punch'' defines it, " sucking-warden" are entirely an anomaly—the bantling being in the position of a newly fledged chicken, but taking upon himself all the airs and graces of a fully developed fowl without arriving at sufficient maturity. His appointment to such an office naturally leads him to believe that he really is a Warden only wanting judicial powers; even this, sometime ago was actually given him, and he mounted the bench as a Justice of the Peace—happily however for the country, the General ment clipped his expanding wings by issuing a circular letter to all gentlemen of his class, intimating that their resignations of the commission of the peace would be gladly accepted by His Excellency, the Governor of New Zealand. Against the system of officers in charge we have many times written, knowing full well that the position being so near an approach to that of Warden, there must necessarily arise, considering that there are so few officers of an inferior grade, that want of discipline, which is so material to the

efficient working of a department. In fact had things not have taken the course they have—promotions were going at such a *apid Tate that there would have 'been nothing-subordinate to a Warden, and the dignity of that office would have been lost for ever. Instead of having officers in-charge let there be Wardens' Clerks at the out-lymg districts, whose duties shall be confined solely to office-work, and having no business whatever to take them out into the field—no confusion could possibly arise, while that official distinction would be preserved which is so highly necessary to the proper conduct of public affairs. Mr Pyke's visit to the Goldfields is doubtlessan opportune one, and we believe that from it much good will arise. Mr Pyke's experience in Goldfield's matters is of no mean order, and dates over a very long period, and there can be no doubt but that some remedy for existing evils will suggest itself, and a better system organised for the future.