The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1872.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2785, 20 January 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1872.

The letter of our Mount Benger correspondent, published last evening, places the proceedings of the Waste Land Board in a new light. He tells us that announcements were posted in the district that the Board were prepared to take “evidence” on the 15th, Evidence respecting what 1 The state of public feeling on the sale to Mr Clarke! or was the announcement merely a sham—a make believe of an earnest desire to do nothing detrimental to the “ public interest an excuse to fall back upon when Mr Reid’s Government is set upon in the Council by the rabid of his own party, who already give mouth, and threaten like a rebellious pack of hounds to overmaster the huntsman ? That term “ public “ interest ” is sadly abused. It means all things by turns, according to the political bias of the person using it. When Mr Reid first began the factious opposition to the Hundreds Regulation Act, he professed to be actuated by an earnest desire to promote the “ public “ interest.” On precisely the same grounds his opponents advocated its adoption. Mr Reid thought he was so backed up by the country that he was certain of success, and with the “ public “ interest,” ever flowing from his lips, he stopped the sales of land. In “ the public interest ” he undid all that had been done in regard to railways. In the “ public interest ” he incurred a heavy Provincial debt that rendered a spasmodic effort necessary to reduce the adverse balance at the Bank. In “ the public “ interest ” the sale was made to Mr Clarke ; in the “ public interest ” it has been decried by Mr Stout ; and in the “ public interest an act very like repudiation has been perpetrated by the Waste Land Board. Truly Otago abounds with patriots, ready to sacrifice public honor to “ public “ interest ” ! In the H public in- “ terest ” we suppose a land agitation was fostered in the Mount Benger district, either by order of the Waste Land Board or with the consent of some of its members, or at least it was winked at by them. Perhaps tfie Board might put forward the excuse that it was their duty to have the fullest information as to the effect of ratifying the sale to Mr Clarke ; and we are quite willing to concede the point on condition that it was asked for at the proper time. Bub men of every shade of political opinion must admit that when a contract had been entered into the time had gone past. “ The public interest ” then required that it should be honorably and literally fulfilled. We do not know a worse feature in a man or a Government than a continual display of a desire to overreach in bargain-making. Both public and private interests suffer by it. There was a time in the political history of Victoria when the Government was at perpetual war with contractors. Scarcely a large contract was completed and paid for without a wrangle. Session after session Parliamentary Committees were engaged in settling differences between the Government and men who professed to have been injured. The evil at last reached such a giant shape that no contractor could be found to undertake a job without adding some ten per cent, to his estimate to cover probable cost of litigation. The Government in all this professed to be actuated by an earnest desire to promote “the public intesest,” while in reality they were sacrificing it both in money and reputation. We have no desire that Otago shall step into the same condemnation, but it seems very likely to do so if the people are to be appealed to on every occasion, however trivial, in order to save some political reputation scathless. This taking evidence after the fact, can be nothing more nor less than political dodging. Our correspondent may underrate the number of land agitators in the district

as much as Mr Stout overrated them. | This gentleman no doubt spoke the truth Avhen he said he could get memorials signed numerously in every district adjacent to Mount Benger condemnatory of the sale to Mr Clarke, We have”no doubt, for sufficient consideration, he would undertake to obtain memorials as numerously signed in favor of it. Like the Greek painter’s picture the features marked “ bad” one day, would be endorsed “good” the next by the very same signatures. Every one knows that there is nothing so easy as to obtain signatures to a memorial. And just in the same way when a Waste Land Board advertises for evidence for or against a transaction in land, there will be plenty of grievance-mongers ready at hand to justify either course of action. But why go behind the evidence of Mr M'Kerrow ? Why ask Tom, Dick, or Harry, who hold each an agricultural lease of fifty acres, what he thinks about the matter after the terms of the bargain have been settled upon and decided 1 It is not uncharitable to say that Provincial politics are at the bottom of it, and herein one of the weak points of the Waste Land Board is laid bare: some of its members are leaders of a political party, and wish to throw the responsibility of decison off their own shoulders on to what they dignify by the name of public opinion. Mr Reid has always been guilty of this weakness. He would ask the people the best physic for a dog, if by so doing he could have their sanction for poisoning it. If he ever means to rise in political life, he must cast off this servile pandering to mere faction, and take his stand on principle. It is needless to discuss the question, whether the original bargain was in favor of or adverse to the “ public interest,” for nothing can be plainer than the fact that the “pub- “ lie interest ” will be irretrievably damaged by repudiating it.