The Globe. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1597, 2 April 1879, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1879.

And so it seems that the Government have found it advisable to appoint a new Immigration Agent. It is not very long ago that the selection of Mr. J. McCullogh Reid for a similar office was widely commented upon. There were more reasons than one—in the Ministerial mind, at least—for pitchforking into a comfortable Homo appointment the conductor of one of the Government organs, who, as has been the case with Mr. D. Luckie since, had to be looked after when the proper time came. A good deal of mystery, we believe, has shrouded the nomination of the new Immigration Agent, Mr. A. Clements, while gossip, both in and out of political circles, has made itself particularly busy on the score of what really influenced the cabinet in making the choice. When Mr. Clements reaches Homo, it is expected that his first interview with Sir Julius Yogel may possibly throw light upon the many varied rumors to which we are alluding. It is not our purpose, however, to have much to say on the subject just now. But the departure of Mr Clements for Europe naturally turns one’s mind to the subject of the Immigration Department, as controlled by the Ministry during the last few months. What, for instance, has become of one of Mr Clements’ new colleagues, the redoubtable and much travelled “ Captain ” Barry ? It is now some months since this elderly 'protege of Sir George Grey shook the colonial dust off his feet, bent upon popularising New Zealand and its brilliant prospects in European circles. Numberless were the tales handed about at the time of Captain Barry’s so-called appointment, as to what exact position ho hold in the Civil Service, and what magical influence it was that had caused him to ho transformed into a representative unit of the New Zealand community. As a matter of fact, we believe we are correct in stating that Captain Barry, although fully furnished with Ministerial credentials for his Homo trip, is a part and parcel of the Immigration department. The captain may be said to bo on the unattached list ; a kind of modern free-lance in truth, of condottiere, whose cry is “ Grey and colonial civilisation.” After pestering a weakminded and popularity-seeking Cabinet for pecuniary assistance towards publishing at Homo a hook of travels, the

■contents of which would put to the blush the author of tho “Arabian Nights,” Captain Barry suggested a compromise, which tho Government gladly accepted. They agreed to hh terms, which, if not high, may have at all events the unfortunate result of bringing ridicule upon the extraordinary way we colonists are apt to do things “ when the moon is on tho full.” Ministers gave the persistent and much-travelled applicant a secondclass passage to England, together with a sympathetic letter of recommendation from our ahfoite Premier, generally addressed, wo understand, to some official grandees in London towards whom Sir George Grey cherishes a long and well-nurtured grudge. Armed with this double-edged kind of vade-mecum, it is impossible to say what amusing mischief Captain Barry may not do at Home. But to give a fair idea of how circumstances over which he has probably had, Po control, may also assist our friend in rendering the colony doubly ridiculous in tho eyes of the people in England, a municipal anecdote of which Captain Barry was tho hero not very long ago might he retailed. As it stands on tho civic records of the Province of Otago, its veracity is not open to doubt. The town of Queenstown, in the West Otago Goldfields had been proclaimed a borough, and the humorous sons of tho soil located in that bracing locality thought it a good joke to elect Captain Barry to tho Mayoral chair. Those kinds of jokes, wo might remark en passant, are not unknown in our loading cities oven. Time wore on, and tho now Mayor was never tired of devising more and more eccentric modes of distinguishing his term of office. One day he had occasion to buy a draught mare for municipal uses, and looking over the receipt ho found fault with the way the seller had worded it. “ Why,” said the Captain —“You spell it m a re, while it should be mayo r.” The horse-dealer remonstrated, and assured his Worship that the former was the correct spelling. “ Well,” retorted the latter, “I keep signing my official title to documents mare, and the Town Clerk will have it that it should be may or. Now, which of you two am I to believe ? ”

It may be hoped that when Captain Barry’s famous book of Munchausen travels sees the light of European criticism, this voracious municipal tale may not be found adorning it. The book, wo may state, is to be published under the patronage of Sir George Grey, “by authority,” in fact; and it is understood that its usefulness as a colonising engine will bo very groat. Can political senility go farther than is shown by what we can only designate as administrative tomfoolery? We are not prepared to say that in appointing Mr. Clements to a fullblown Immigration Agency the Government committed themselves so far as they did in poor Barry’s case. Yet wo believe that it is not improbable that disclosures will be made which will clearly show how little Sir George Grey studies public interests when making official appointments. And in matters of this kind the old adage about “ feathers indicating the direction of the wind” applies with considerable force.