THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1874, 25 February 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1880.

There was but scant satisfaction to be derived by the Council deputation from thei interview with Mr. Rolleston on Monday on the subject of City Reserves. All that could be extracted from him by their utmost skill was an undertaking to represent the matter to his colleagues without, however, holding out any hope that the representation was likely to produce the only result sought by the deputation. As a matter of fact, Mr. Rolleston had no power to make any more comforting answer. However good his will towards Christchurch might be, he would have been placing himself in a very false position had he, in the teeth of the Act of 1878, made any promise to the deputation. At the same time, it is only right to give him credit for much self-control under considerable temptation. Had he followed the precedent so well established by his predecessors in office, ho would have answered pleasantly, would have utterly igaored any legal difficulties, and undertaken to give the hungry city fathers at least twice as much as they asked for. Instead of this, he showed them in the most candid manner that it was quite beyond his power to do anything, that their only hope lay with the Legislature, and that it was extremely doubtful if the Legislature would do anything to gratify the withes of the Council. Such is the position of Christchurch in the matter of reserves, and such, it is to be feared, it is likely to remain. Of course an attempt may be made to get a Bill through the House making an exception in favor of this city. But any such effort will show very little knowledge of the feeling entertained towards Canterbury generally by the rest of the colony. The measure would almost certainly meet with rejection if only for the sake of gratifying that jealousy. Of course the advocates of the exception may be able to show readily and on really substantial grounds that Christchurch asks for nothing to which she is not entitled on all grounds of justice. But surely the City Councillors have lived long enough in the colony, and been sufficiently observant of colonial polities to know that justice is one of those considerations which have the smallest possible weight with the Parliament of New Zealand in arriving at a conclusion on any matter. The expediency of the hour is the only thing that finds favour with that august body, and it is incredible that the sagacious City Council of Christchurch did not know this. Now the expediency of the hour does not point to any prayers from the present Ministry to the Assembly for gifts or concessions to Canterbury. A period for such requests may arrive, but it is certainly not yet. Under these circumstances the Christchurch public will no doubt regard with leniency the sturdy refusal of Mr Rolleston to promote their little scheme. There are no doubt many who still go upon the delegate principle in the matter of representation, and who regard a Minister of the Crown as a special agent for the district he happens to belong to and for that only. This view of things is, we hope, slowly fading from colonial politics generally; but to suppose that any large proportion of the inhabitants of enlightened Christchurch ever held such an opinion would of course be ridiculous, and to suppose that they would be angry with William Rolleston for not holding it and as a Minister acting upon it, would bo folly verging upon lunacy. Having had the evidence of

their own eyes and ears for the inflexible morality of their local Minister, and his superiority to local predilections, the councillors, and members of all Canterbury local bodies, will probably hesitate before they again tempt him either to break the law, or make promises in contravention of the spirit of the law. Though it must in calm moments be to them all a source of eminently justifiable pride to reflect that their district has furnished the colony with such a man, they will doubtless see the desirability of putting their jobs, or schemes for contemplated jobs, in their pockets for a season. Not that we desire for a moment to insinuate that the request of the City Council to ho placed on an equality with other cities in the matter of revenue-hearing reserves was a contemplated job. It is, of course, a duty that Councillors owe to their constituents to *nvert whatever colonial assets they can lb city properties, and many city dwellers will regret that the Councillors should have done that which it was their duty to do with so little profit. But the fact that Mr. Rolleston’s virtue and his regard for the law proved unassailable in a case where there would have been so much justification for his omission to strain at a gnat or so, should bo a caution to others not to ask him to swallow their camels. That appears to us to he the moral of the fruitless interview between the City Councillors and the Minister of Lauds on Tuesday, and it is one which, if carefully pondered, may in future save much time both to Ministers and proposed deputations. We have not entered at any length upon the question of the reserves, or whether, failing any augmentation of the revenue from this source, the Council has any alternative means by which it may reasonably hope to increase the receipts without increasing the general rates. The discussion of these matters would demand a series of articles to themselves. In conclusion we must make a further reference to the recent deputation and its revelations. Is it unreasonable to ask whether a public body (that is the Council of three years hack) which, when it has a chance of selecting a 2000 acre reserve, deliberately selects one that is valueless, and for which no hid can he obtained, is altogether to ho piti«d except in respect of its foolishness ?