The Globe. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 872, 11 April 1877, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1877.

Mb. Frederick Hobbs, some time the Chief Magistrate of the city, and at the present moment holding the very onerous office of chairman of that well abused body called the Drainage Board, is .about to be exalted on high among all men by the will of the New Zealand representative of Her Gracious Majesty. To put it more plainly, so as to reach the lowest level of the meanest understanding, our friend Bred. Hobbs is at once to be made a J.F. And, in these troublous municipal days in which we live, the distinction thus conferred by the Ministry upon Mr. Hobbs, has more meanings than one. To him, indeed, a distinction it will be, and, without doubt, received as a recognition of services rendered to his fellow-citizens when placed by them in a position of trust and eminence, and at a time too when much was expected from him who would allow himself to be hoisted to the top of the civic ladder. Two classes of men in the colonies are generally placed by the Crown upon the Commission of the Peace. Wellconnected and vapid youths with some sort of incomes and log-rolling social interest, from the first. The second may be said to be mainly composed of successful toilers of the soil, whose horny hands have at last grasped — and retained—the golden coin with which Dame Fortune has rewarded their labors. Neither class values the distinction in the least, nor does it show any aptitude whatever for the meagre and incongrous duties which appertain to the empty office. With Mr. Hobbs it must be different. Whatever opinions people may hold as to the soundness extensibility of those numerous schemes which he propounds for the benefit of the public, no one can deny that, for independence of mind, blind devotion to popular interests, and energetic zeal in endeavouring to further the latter, he fully deserves more than the traditional kudos which attaches to well-meaning wearers of the Mayoral purple. Some people’s good deeds are written on sand, others on basements of water tanks and lampposts. Mr. Hobbs has prudently thought of something less perishable than either. \V ho can blame him. A better Mayor, taking him all round, Christchurch certainly never had, and if he be satisfied with the shape his reward has taken, we heartily congratulate him upon his approaching assumption of this new dignity. Justices of the Peace, now-a-days, are as plentiful as blackberries in a thorn hedge, and a few more added will matter little. As far as the usual (jualifi cations which should distinguish a useful magistrate are concerned, we feel sure that Mr, Hobbs will not be behind his compeers on the Bench, and avo trust that the latter may also be of our opinion.

Coxsi dbuabbe surprise, and, we may sav, disgust on tjie part .of certain people mostly interested, was felt last week, when it was discovered that a hew cast-iron rule affecting one of the oldest and most important privileges

of the public, had been initiated hy the Government in the Canterbury Survey-office. We refer to the novel incident in the direct means of taxation inflicted upon the community, by which no one at the present moment can cast a glance even, at the public maps kept there for public purposes, without paying a certain preliminary fee. We have not a word, of course, to say against the newly established system now enforced in the colony since that all-important department, that of surveys, was placed under one head, with a view of its being conducted with greater uniformity and care. Ear from it. One of the greatest blessings that perhaps abolition has conferred upon us is, that of putting an end to the lamentable state of disorganisation and neglect which has unfortunately prevailed, for many years past, in the matter of these survey questions. But we cannot for one moment imagine for what purpose and to what ends so ridiculous and direct a kind of taxation as that referred to, should have been suddenly resolved upon by the authorities. From times immemorial in the colony of New Zealand, every possible effort has been made to facilitate the dealings of land purchasers with the waste property of the Crown, but here, we find, not only an obstacle of a serious nature has been placed in. the way of the public, but its character is such as to call forth the severest reprobation. It ; takes the shape, as wo said before, of direct taxation, and that too of the meanest possible kind; while at the . same time it tramples under foot those well-worn and long established traditions, which have existed ever since the establishment of constitutional rule here, between colonists and the Government. Taxation, in one way or the other, is sufficiently heavy at the present moment without its additional burthen being felt in such paltry matters as these. But to compel every member of the community — whether he be inclined to look up some data with reference to property he may hold from the Crown, or whether ho desires to effect some new purchases —to disburse a fee before he be allowed to glance at a map, is almost verging upon tyranny. We know of a case which occurred a day or two ago, when some people, bent upon selecting some Government land, called at the Survey-office, and requested to be shown a map of a certain part of the Provincial district. Upon its being produced,it was found that the district which they desired to look at, was just outside the limits of the map in question. Another map had accordingly to be called for, when a double fee was at once demanded, one for the short investigation of that which did not contain what was wanted, and the other for the production of the second one. Certainly, the question of the payment of those fees —a few shillings at the utmost —may he said to fie an inconsiderable matter. Yet, besides the fact that the usages of the last twenty-five years are broken through, there remains another, viz., that there is no legal authority or sanction under the laws affecting the doings and savings of Land Boards and Survey departments, which can be quoted for so unwarrantable a departure from an old established practice. The public have a right to free and uncontrolled access to what connects them with any past or future purchases of lands the I property of the Crown, and unless any ; regulations cancelling the custom of , years are gazetted by His Excellency the Governor, we deny the right of ; the Surveyor-General to promulgate 1 such edicts, or of any member of the Ministry to endorse the action of the former in the matter. The SurveyorGeneral, we understand, has issued forth a circular for the guidance of officers in charge of the various survey-offices in the colony, directing that the public shall no longer have a right of access to public maps, unless fees, as set forth, be previously paid. Copies of this circular were printed and affixed in the Survey-offices. The sooner these documents are taken down, and this new order of things done away with, the better. We might state, eu passant, that one of the first sufferers in Christchurch, under the new edict, was a well-known M.H.H., who, accompanied by bis solicitor—the latter a distinguished member of the local bar —was “ bailed up” for the amount

of several fees, vvlicn looking up some records in connection "with laud m which he was interested. The indignation of our legislator knew no bounds, and, with language more forcible than parliamentary, he paid the exacting demands in full “ with a shake of the topsail sheet,” vowing, at the same time, that he would “ move the House” on the subject without loss of time. And no wonder. The times are fast approaching, indeed, when no liege subject of her Majesty the Queen will be able to sneeze, unless under the provisions of a statute “in such case made and provided,"