The Felding Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1892.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 104, 1 March 1892, Page 2

The Felding Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1892.

The remarks made by us on the proposal to establish slavery in Queensland have been echoed both in the other colonies and England. So monstrous a crime against humanity as the legalisation of the slave trade in the Pacific could not fail to meet universal condemnation from all free men. The only excuse that Sir Samuel Griffiths can possibly find is that the exigencies of the political situation made such a suggestion excusable. The mouths of political agitators, whether they are supporters or opponents, must be stopped some how, no matter whether the means adopted or proposed should involve the lives of human beings. However, in this instance the stern truth may prove a salutary one, and colonial politicians will have learned the lesson that there are certain limits of crime and folly they are not allowed to exceed. Tee Government are said to intend making radical changes in the Audit Department, and will begin by retiring several of the oldest officers in that section of the public seryice. No reasonable objection can be offered at any time to the Ministry of the day placing officers on the retired list whose length of service entitles them to pensions, or whom old age has rendered unfit for further usefulness, but when it is known that the Ministry have been, from their point of view, thwarted or opposed by au official made independent of them by Statute, and that the said official, or any of those under his control, are likely to be removed, the ostensible pretence of economy of administration may with perfect justice be looked upon with some degree of suspicion. Men of all shades of political opinion have always looked to the Audit Department to protect the revenue and see thatit is only expanded in the direction authorised by Parliament ; and where there has been any friction between the Department and the Ministry of the day, it has been well understood that where such occurred the blame, if any, seldom or never lay with the audit. We do not wish to imply that the present Ministry are any better or much worse than their predecessors, but this we do say, clearly and distinctly, that any interferencejwith the statutory powers of the audit office should be resented by the whole colony, _