The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4181, 21 July 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1876.

The “Innocents Abroad,” who, under the guise of a triad of Commissioners, recently perambulated the country with, the object of picking up information about the Provincial Government establishments which might be useful to the Ministry in framing its constitutional measures, were engaged in an undertaking productive of little fruit. They left Wellington on a somewhat ambiguous mission, la order that they might form a judgment as to the local staff required under the new ardor of things, it was obviously necessary that they should be fully cognizant of what that new order of things was to bo, which knowledge, it may fairly be inferred from various circumstances, they did not possess; so that, in Suggesting reductions or increases in the Provincial establishments, they were, to this extent, groping in the dark. Had it been posted up in the intentions of the Ministry, the Commission, to have done its work thoroughly, mustJaave consisted of men practically conversant with the details of the various departments. Let us take the case of the Survey Department—one ef the most necessary, but at the same time one of the most costly deportments under the control of the Provincial Executives. How could either of these gentlemen tell whether economy could be effected in the management of the surveys? Mr Gisborne, for a considerable part of his official life, had been Under-Sccretary for the Colony, a functionary whose principal duties are to write ambiguous letters to unfortunate persons with grievances, to receive visitors with urbanity, and to assist in the ceremony of swearing-in a new Governor when he arrives. Mr Seed is bead of the Customs and Marine Departments, ai d although in that capacity he has something to do with “surveys,” it is not withaur-

veys of the waste lands of the Crown. The official title of the other “ Innocent ” Under-Secretary for Public Works—might suggest the notion of a lij.ttor acquaintance with land surveying, but this gentleman happens to bo in charge of the clerical branch of the Public Works office, to which he was suddenly promoted from the post of Clerk to the Superintendent of Wellington ; so that it is not surprising that he and his colleagues refrained from tackling the survey department, the most striking part of their report in regard to which is the original observation that in all the Provinces the surveys are in a more or less incomplete state, and in most of them the Crown grants are greatly in arrear. One could hardly, of course, have expected the Commissioners to bo intimately acquainted with the interior of the gaols and lunatic asylnms. They speak with marked regret of the “surplus accommodation” in the Westland, Marlborough, and Nelson gaols ; but the public generally will endure the trial with equanimity. About public works, in which they felt more at home, they got a little puzzled on account of their instructions leaving it doubtful whether they were to include in their estimates of expenditure the large sums voted in Canterbury and Otago for works not yet begun; and Mr Gisborne accordingly telegraphed to the Government for explanations. Indue course, a message in reply was received from the Premier :—“ Do not beset yourself with difficulties. The departmental expenditure, as you say, is the primary object of your miaaion v Information about the public works you gain will be useful; but do not devote much time to it.” Having read their report, as supplied to the General Assembly, we are of opinion that the Commissioners rigidly followed the advice tendered to them by the Premier. They abstained from besetting themselves with difficulties; in fact, they took things very easily. It is true that, as Mr Mac AN drew refused to furnish them with any information, and Sir George Grey threatened to give them into the custody of the police if they dared to set foot within his sacied portals, the Provinces of Otago ana Auckland were thus eliminated from the Commissioners’ scheme of reorganisation, and the project necessarily assumed a character suggestive of the well-known comparison of the play of “Hamlet” with the part of Hamlet omitted; but still, the official experience of Mr Gisborne, at least, must have taught him the art of saying a great deal about very little, and adorning platitudes with a glow of fervid language. The Commissioners should really have observed tha,proprieties, and not have revealed the utter nakedness of their mission, as they hare done in this report. It is the baldest ’of bald State documents.

Supposing the Commissioners had set out •with a # well-defined object in .view, they were not the proper persons to employ for the purpose. How could three strangers, after inspecting the offices of a Provincial Government for a day qr two, tell which officers ought to be discharged ? Th6y would necessarily be open to obsequious attentions; and might, quite unwittingly, recommend the dismissal of the very man whose services were the most valuable, but who had not happened to attract their favorable notice. The person who is really capable of forming a true estimate of the worth of the different officers is the Superintendent—at ail events he has the nest opportunities of judging; and one may conclude that a Superintendent who, like the Superintendent of- Canterbury, cordially assisted the Commissioners in their investigations, would have just as readily furnished the information direct to the General Government, while a good deal of expense would have thereby been saved. It did not require a special commission to ascertain that the Record Clerk of Canterbury “is advanced in years and very deaf,” and that his son might for the future be properly entrusted with his duties. Where the Superintendents were hostile, no information of any value could be obtained; so that in either ease the labors of the Commissioners were useless Altogether, the perusal of these gentlemen’s report d >es not tend to edification, and it would consist of mere dry bones but for the voluminous padding supplied by the correspondence between the Premier and Mr Macandrew, with the shorter, but more spicy epistles of S»r George Grey. Remembering, however, the war of words which arose through the tour of the Commissioners, one can hardly refrain from a slight alteration of tho well-known lines of Pope, in order to express the prevailing 8 ntiment about it— What dire offence from paltry causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things."