The Globe. FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1876.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 604, 26 May 1876, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1876.

There can be no question that the ancient Greek who is accredited with being the dweller in a tub, and who roamed Athens with lighted lantern in the day time looking for an honest man, was a philosopher with a mind of his own, but tradition has not even so much as hinted at his having been successful in his search. There can be no doubt then that the age in which he lived must have been a peculiarly corrupt oDe, that is in comparison to the present; for were the Tub-ite a resident of the colony of New Zealand, at the present moment, he would have no more to do but hie to Dunedin, and rush with all imaginable speed to the Waste Lands Board, raise his lantern to convenient height, and look upon the honest members thereof. We say honest, because they have refused to perpetrate a piece of provincial land jobbery such as would have been a discredit to the colony at large, and have tended more to damage the character of the public guardians of the common weal, in the opinion of other colonies and the mother country, than any other system of bolstering up provincial credit. We should, were we capitalists who were desirous to invest in New Zealand securities, be very apt to look askance upon a colony wherein the Superintendents or Executives of local Groverninents had the power to dispose of the lands belonging to the people, at so tremendous a sacrifice, for the mere purpose of the fulfilling of contracts which had been entered into with reckless extravagance, and a want of foresight utterly vicious. We are not, then, at all surprised when the gentlemen who comprise the Waste Lands Board of Otago indignantly deny tho allegation of the Superintendent of tlie province, and resolve to ask his Honor what authority he had for makirjg such a statement; which statement was, that the Colonial Government had attempted to coerce the Board. As we have before remarked, we do not see that the General Government would have done any more than its duty had it stepped in to prevent so preposterous a sale; but, finding that the action taken by the Board was the result of the true spirit of independent honesty, we are bound in all justice to

approve such highly praiseworthy integrity, and trust that the gentlemen composing the Board will find that the public can and will find the means of evincing a due appreciation of the rarity of such conduct, and we hope to hear of the members of the Otago "Waste Lands Board filling higher and more onerous positions in the management of the affairs of the colony. Such men are valuable adjuncts to the Executive of any Grovernmont, and we do not for one moment suppose but the present Government, will seek the means of distinguishing the gentlemen who have exhibited so commendable an example of Waste Lands Board probity.