SCANDAL AT WELLINGTON.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 138, 21 June 1901, Page 2

SCANDAL AT WELLINGTON.

Our telegrams this morning give information of a disgraceful state of affairs in connection with the camp at Wellington. Truly, may the hard-working settlers rise, in wrath, and ask who is going to pay for the enormous expense that is being rushed into, to say nothing of all the petty jealousies that are being created. Over 400 volunteers are being sent all the way from Auckland to Christchurch, and thirty men have resigned in disgust because they were not allowed to go. The management of affairs in Wellington seems to have been disgraceful. The conduct of the men under the aggravation they received was no excuse for the ill-tempered outburst from Colonel Pole-Penton. That officer surely does not imagine that ho is upholding the dignity of his position by ramping round and scolding the officers,and alluding to men as infernal curs and cowards. The Colonel should be taught that bullying and the use of such language are not the proper style nowadays. No one can excuse the men who so far forgot discipline as to parade near Government House with sample rations hung upon a pole; it is possible that this was done by outsiders, not amenable to camp rules, but however that may be, the volunteers had certainly good reason to complain. They were invited to what ever yone considered would be a jolly picnic, and they have had to put up with a shameful state of things. One man is reported to have said that in his experience in South Africa he had no worse to bear. The man who talked like that must surely have been shirking his duty, and his statement is not worthy of credence ; but it would be interesting t o know who is really responsible for the bungling at Wellington,. and that will not be found out by an officer stamping round in the mud, and talking of “infernal curs.” The exhibition of ill temper by the Colonel is calculated to do more harm than the foolish escapade of the four men.