The Evening Star THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3628, 8 October 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1874.

m'fW'- '/C'T"Vi - TI ’T^“ r ~ : JlHe routine ' business of bur Waste Lands Board *js npt pi way p soamonotonous as the questions brought cohsidbratioh ’would ,seem-to, indieate. T . - The - Chief Commissioner has occasionally troublesome ; custbihßis.'to deal 'with whb hfe not willing,that all tjhe .bargaining, shajl be only oh (mb side;' Tljey have tlieir own af<mgMi AandTWF!Oiqj ? and. presume to differ from the Board as to the value of the desire to }bW\ ' ¥ natural, eases, that the Chief Commissioner of Waste Lands should feel ahnoyed'l not' that he is .altogether done/because ‘it' is supposed that the other members of tb® Board' share slightly in the task of assessing the priee £ Wwdste Jaiids. • 1 But 17 the Chief Commissioner has cares upon hisjshouls. ders that they cannot, relieve He sits there/ hbt bniy to exphss tlie* judgment the Board has arrived at; but his jj he upon him the; onus of not only controlling the mem,bers of and keeping,the/n in * their ‘proper ! jj>rdces, hut of putting down

all rebels who dare to express an* i opinion regarding n its *’-flarMctions Uinc ilia} lachrynite. It r d»hst be admitted that he has a : lpt to deal with; He ’cannot alter a record ! in the minute-book of the transactions ’ of the Board, without his right to’do so' being called ip qufstjoa by the-mem.-bers, who dare to have an opinion of; their own on the subject. It is not merely that they hold such opinions— ’ he could not help that—the annoyance of the matter is that they have the im- . J>brtinenee to .express them in_ terms not ~ to ~ lihe amour propre x>f Chief-Commis-'■stofier. Th& iS 'rbally too lbdd,but it cannot be helped. The Provincial Government camtibt' assist him, for the Board is unremovable at its will. Like 1 man and wife, the law has linked the Commissioner and his colleagues toge-‘ i; then for life, although -it ?is' not necessary to go to the 'Divorce Court to obtain a separation should incompati- , sl% of temper reader,, it desirable. But if the Commissioner has difficulty in controlling the members of his own Court, What can be said about those self-willed land agents who- occasionally • present ■ themselves' 1 beforei the Board, and who insist upon the right to speak in" defiance of repeated injunctions by the Commissioner tokeep silence ?, , Much as,we pity him in his abortive efforts to keep command of ,his, colleagues, we sympathise still more with him when he has to deal with outsiders like thpse agfehtsl Men of nerve are they, who know what they are talking about Occasionally/, afad do not hesitate to flourish the fa Win th e very- teeth of ; the Comipissioneg himseif. discipline,, and in most cases having ascertained to a stiver the exact value of the ’ land "they desire to buy/ they have the impudence to attempt to induce the Commissioner and the Board to reconsider their decision when it does not suit their ideas. What, for instance, could be more unseemly ,than for Mr Calcuxt to stand before the Board and tell his reasons for demurring to the price of a piece of land, that the officer under its Control pronounced valueless? Had not the Board decreed

he should pay two guineas an acre, because he wanted to save thh expense of fencing ? - It is true it was eleven acres of stone, fit 'neither for building, fencing* Or road-making : equally true it Is'that tlfe sutface'is balrrefi, arid'will not grow a blade of grass nor an ear of eorp. , The Board, weekly alienates hundreds, nay thousands of acres that will yield abundant .crops, for a pound an acre but this piece of land was considered of special value, though it contains no . mineral deposits worth a farthing, nor any agricultural capabilities, Mr Calcutt naturally wished to know what was the special- value j and the public, too, would like to ■ know j for it does not seem a sufficient reason, in the face of strict land regulations, that a corner section shall be charged extra just because a man by possessing it will be saved the cost of additional fencing. Between'private proprietors such sharp P&ttek business-like, b^it in the high Court over which the Com-;

missioner presides,'such petty considerations as squeezing an extra ten-pound note out of a purchaser are not generally -ponsidergd exactly correct thing. •Mr C4ibtTT£ k fiblda Views of' the 3qard from those 'Chief Com missioner. He, to of public equitably ad minute ring the land laws of the Province/and he had the hardihood to tell him so. What wonder that the Commissioner should order the room to be cleared ! But, th^nh.thoj.Commissioner -had j«ot legal

power it/ The" repotted tooktheir books,-the agents-took their departure, but there the rebel stood, unawed by the anathemas hurled at him from the Commissioner’s throne. What was to be done 1 The Commissioner had! no sergeant-at-arms with halberd and sword to arrest the offender; there Wfte there, or had, there been dn| he dared not to interfered ; the rebel remained master'of the fiejd ; .‘the Commissioner was overfaced, and in order to cover his discomfiture he declared the application postponed. Mr. ; CibcuTT, ' therefore,'’ must be at the expense of again appearing to press for a rehearing, because the Board or the Commissioner ' were 1 not prepared to

give a satisfactory reason for what, on the face of it, cannot is time that a cha^|e T was for however tolerapt, the pjnfyliq tpay bgr andj are of the idiosyhcracies of their ser--vants, there : ialalhmit anc f». , a js pot submit to. the . vagaries of a Commissioner qf ,Tvhp (Sfits aliTaw?&t defiance in dealing with his colleagues and the