The Globe. MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1413, 26 August 1878, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1878.

The charges made against Mr. Booth, Laud Purchase Commissioner and Resident Magistrate are pretty well known throughout Now Zealand. The Government organs have taken excellent care on that head. They condemned Mr. Booth before any enquiry had been held: they commended Mr. Sheehan for his unexampled promptness in suspending the accused officer, and the pluck he had shown in carrying out his determination to put down the traffic by Government officers in native lauds. In no mild terms did our contemporaries describe the assumed guilt of Mr. Booth; in no halfhearted manner did they pour adulation on the Native Minister. But there is one thing that these immaculate censors, these high-minded guardians of public morals have neglected to do. They have omitted to mention that on enquiry being made by a Royal Commission consisting of Messrs Woodward and McKellar, the accused has been triumphantly vindicated from the charges made. The following are the concluding sentences of the Commissioners’ report which was laid before Parliament, not spontaneously by the Government, but after a motion calling for it had been carried by Mr. Fox : —“ The very strongest testimony has been borne to Mr. Booth’s uprightness and integrity by Mr. Gill, who, as accountant of the the Land Purchase Branch of the Native Department, has had ample opportunity of judging, by Mr. Clarke, the Undersecretary for the Native Department, and by Mr. Cooper, who filled that office for several years. On a review of the whole case we must respectfully report to your Excellency that wo consider Mr. Booth has been completely exonerated from the very serious charges which unfortunately ho has been exposed to through a combination of circumstances.” On this subject it is incredible that their blind worship of the Ministry, and the dread of losing the Government patronage should have so perverted the tiio minds of our contemporaries that they abstain from making amends to Mr. Booth because they are afraid of embarrassing their idols. We must believe that the reticence which the ministerial journals have observed on this subject, has been simply duo to v ant of information, tho Ministry having endeavored to keep back the result of tho enquiry, until tho House specially demanded its production. No doubt this action was of an unworthy character; but what else was to be expected ? But for the reputation of the Now Zealand press, it is to be hoped that those who crowed so vehemently over Mr. Booth in his trouble, who lauded the Native Minister’s lofty and fearless rectitude to tho skies, will now have rectitude enough to admit their former precipitancy, and do tardy justice to the officer whom they have wronged. Some of those journals claim that they are rightly tho recipients of Government patronage, on the ground that they have the widest circulation, In proportion, then, as that claim is well-founded in that proportion have they done the greater wrong by their roviliugs at an innocent man. Even those who have not condemned Mr. Booth, but simply published telegrams or paragraphs announcing the fact of his suspension on a serious charge, certainly owe it to common honesty now to anounce that, after duo enquiry made, Mr. Booth has been honorably acquitted. It would he interesting to learn how it came about that Mr. Sheehan was misled in tho matter, and who were tho inventors of this trumped-up charge, hut this is not shown in tho commissioners report. It would also bo satisfactory to know that the Government have done justice to tho person upon whom they brought such an unmerited slur, and have reinstated him in his former position.

There are several differences between the alterations which tho Colonial Treasurer stated in his budget speech that the Government intended to make in the Customs tariff and those which are proposed in the Bill which was introduced by Mr. Ballance last week. In almost every case where a difference exists the duties enumerated in the Bill are lower than those proposed by tho financial statement. Thus tho duty on mustard is to bo Id instead of 2d per lb., upon pickles 9d instead of Is per dozen

pints, upon starch 8s instead of 4s per cwt. On lead and imported piping the duty is increased, being 2s 6d per cwt. instead of 2s as proposed in the statement. There are also some alterations in the rates for boots and shoes, as to the sizes upon which the charges arc to be made. But the great objection to the Treasurer’proposalsin this respect remains. Men’s boots of all kinds are to pay a duty of a shilling a pair, the effect of which will bo that the cheaper class of working men’s boots will pay a higher duty than they did under the ten per cent ad valorem tariff, while more expensive boots will have to pay less. On women’s lasting and stuff boots, there is a reduction of one shilling from the rate proposed in the financial statement, the duty fixed by the Bill being 7s per dozen pairs. Among the articles placed on the free list the following wore not mentioned in the Treasurer’s statement: —Boot elastic, corn sacks, flour bags, and silk for flour dressing. The first schedule contains sundry other medications of the financial proposals, but we have enumerated sufficient to show that the Treasurer’s Bill varies materially from the Treasurer’s statement. No doubt ho has shown wisdom in listening to representations made to him in the interval between the publication of Ins first proposals and the compilation of his schedule. But the fact that such variations should bo made show's in what a haphazard kind of way, and with what little knowledge Mr. Ballauce must have drafted his original proposal. There is no reason for supposing that ho has abandoned his principle of making ‘‘the specific duty yield as near as possible the amount derived under the ad valorem .” But it is clear that both of the essentially different tariffs which he has now proposed on certain articles cannot accord with that principle, and therefore it is an unavoidable inference that on one occasion or the other he showed culpable carelessness in not knowing the effects of his own proposals. It is satisfactory to note that the duties enumerated in the schedule to the Bill are a very much nearer approach to those imposed under the old tariff, than are the duties proposed in the financial statement. Whenever our Cathedral square con temporaries are driven into a corner, or pinned to their words, they immediately fall back upon tu quogue argument and Bottom. The first is of course always dear to angered school-girls and flustered feminines generally; so it is not surprising that that mode of controversy should have particular attractions for the darlings of the Square. But as to Bottom we quite recognise the fine old crusted character of that remarkable joke. It has not been brought into service by the same office more than a dozen times in the course of the last two or three years, having originally been borrowed from Dick Steele, and descended through innumerable ’prentice scribblers until it has at last found a permanent haven with our contemporaries. Certainly if frequent use can create a proprietary right, they have established an exclusive property in Bottom. Upon their Bottom wo are quite contented that they should rest, and trust they may be spared to grin at the exquisite conceit on many occasions in many a year to come.