The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2797, 3 February 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1872.

The faults of our social machinery, like those of mechanical arrangements, only become manifest when they are required to perforin the work intended. Very often some principle has been outraged iu fitting one part to the rest; or it may be, unsuitable material has been used iu construction, that causes; the whole structure to work unsatisfactorily when any extraordinary pressure is put upon it. So long as common everyday processes only are required,: it may do indifferently well. There may be jarring and rubbing, but the fault may remain long undiscovered. This has been the case with our Waste Land Board. For years it has gone on, deciding cases that have come before it, sometimes satisfactorily, sometimes abitrarily. Those who have had much to do with it, have felt annoyed by the occasional twists and turns they have had to put up with, but they have not found it wise to make public their complaints. Land agents, in fact, must have felt it to their interest to hold their peace, for their own sakes and for those of their clients, Sometimes we have had occasion to remark upon the obstructiveness of their proceedings : sometimes on the want of discernment exhibited tending to discourage investment of capital, or to the careless use of natural products, as iu the conditions prescribed for cutting flax. But until the care displayed by Mr Cornell in having the terms of the sale to Mr Clarke definitely fixed was made public, very few were aware of the slippery character of the contracts entered into by the Board. It was very plain, from what he stated in public before the Board, that he had had prior experience to guide him ; that ho knew with whom ho had to deal. lie therefore endeavored to leave nothing to chance. He stated what he wanted to buy, that he would have what he wanted, and nothing else; and the Board agreed to it, and then repudiated their own bargain, There must have been some powerful motive for this. Not one of those men who sat upon tjiajb Board had any apparent personal interest In the matter. They are of the leading men of Otago. No one would for a moment charge them with acting from motives that the common morality of mankind would condemn. Each in his private life would be regarded of unimpeachable honor, and each enjoys the respect of his fellow-citizens. The fault ideally lies iu the political constitution of the Board. It would be a very pleasant task to a journalist, if in dealing with a matter of this sort he could treat it as a pure abstraction, without incurring the risk of being charged with party animus in shewing that from the very nature of the case no Waste Land Board ought to be made up of politicians. Unfortunately this cannot be, plain as it ought to be to every man that, no matter who holds the reins of government, a political Waste Land Board is open to the same condemnation. Of the members of the Board of Otago, the Chief Commissioner only .can be said to bo unconnected with politics. Of the I’emaining members two are political heads of departments, one is an cx-membcr of the Executive and one au ex-pjeiobcr of the

Provincial Council. With the excep-, tion therefore of two, the remainder are interested in the account that they will be required to give of this transaction to the Provincial Council or to the electors. Consciously or unconsciously public opinion operates upon men acting in those dual capacities. They cannot serve two masters. They cannot be inflexibly just in their transactions and at the same time yielding to the interested elamors ot those who have the power to oust them from office. The worst feature in the American executive system is thus reproduced. Instead ol the Waste Lands being administered wholly irrespective of party, oven the disposal of them by our system is liable to be made the means of cultivating the favor of partisans. If it be replied that intimate connection between the Executive Government and the Board is necessary, we quite admit it. It is required by our system that the land to be disposed of shall be settled by the .Executive Council, as actuaries of the Provincial Council; but the fault lies in this : as the Board is at present constituted, they are not only the law makers but the law administrators. They come hot from the arena of debate, imbued with the feelings by which they have been stirred, bent on carrying out a policy in accordance with the views of their party : and when in the course of the business before the Board the political question on which they hold strong views crops up, an angel’s judgment could scarcely resist the bias. The necessity of the times is, that the Waste Land Board shall be nonpolitical, if it is intended it shall faithfully fulfil its duties. This transaction with Mr Clarke points strongly in that direction. It was begun in order to redeem the consequences of a persistance in error by a political party, and seems likely to end in an expensive law-suit, in order to save their credit with their constituents.