CORRUPTION AT HEADQUARTERS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1169, 25 July 1884, Page 3

CORRUPTION AT HEADQUARTERS.

A Kins'll of quiet indignation must have been visible in the features of many persons in this Colony when, on the morning of the 24th June last, the telegraph conveyed the scandalous face that the public purse had been nothing short of legally pilfered by the vote of a majority of those entrusted with its due protection. This astounding action has certainly degraded the Colony’s legislative assembly in the eyes of many, and will not be easily forg tton. Most petty, too, and miserably stilish, were the arguments brought forward in justific tion of this selfaggrandisement. Two hundred guineas received for very little diffei •. Nt to what the excursionists per W.drarapa were glad to pay for. The comparision may on the whole be fairly sustained Both were mainly pleasure excursions, the Hinemoa par y occupying three weeks, the Wairarapa four The time of each, too, was mainly occupied with friendly gossips, and occasional discussion, private or semi public as the case might be. Both enjoyed good fare. Tne Hinemoas on a Saturday held a Willington picnicking, the Wairarapas a Fiji one. A season of happy leisure was pretty nearly equally enjoyed by both. One grand distinction, however, is very palpable—viz., while the genuine excursionists no doubt well represented themselves and their families in doing injury to none, the Wellington parly grossly misrepresented those in whose place they stoo l, and have also done a permanent injury to the Colony in more ways than one. What an intense spirit of greed m st have held sway in the breasts of that discreditable majority, and what a dishonorable example is thereby exhibited to the Colony at large. Shame, shame! Heie, too, is an exemplification i f voting for whatever is “ for the good of the country”—words which are so frequently and so cheaply uttered on the hustings by candidates. Alas for true and practical patriotism ! Is it not scarce indeed and rare to behold ? What a thousand pities that such is a fact, when it need not be, if only more true nnbifity of motive and heart were cultivated. In the matter of the honorarium the>e is evidently a gross mistake somewhere. Possibly it is exactly double in amount what it should be. Members’ reasonable expenses need to be fully covered, and all besides should consist in the ho. or attached. Over-remuneration tarnishes the true honor of the position, and in the sitting just dissolved has certainly blotted it clean out, and produced instead an ugly patch of dark shame. Monday, the 23' d day of June, 1884, will certainly stand long as a black letter day in the annals of the New Zealand Parliament. Moreover, what seems to add to the discredit of the action is the fact that up to the present honr no benevolent object in this city or out of it, is known to have received aid from members who have been in receipt of the extortionate payment. —Auckland Free Press.