Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 143, 9 October 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1863.

We never recollect having to record an event which has filled the public mind with greater astonishment than the turn which official matters in this Province have just taken. In our issue of last week we informed the good people of Hawke’s Bay, to their utter confusion, that Capt, Carter, our late Superintendent, had accepted the subordinate post of Crown Lauds Commissioner. Wonders never cease. This is one of the most wonderful wonders, in a small way, that ever we heard of.

The gentleman we mention has accepted the office after having, as a member of the Provincial Council, voted that for economy’s sake the offices of Treasurer, Crown Land Commissioner, and Chief Surveyor should he held, by one person. How can he, then, in in the face of having, by the act of his own vote, pledged himself to the public, so far forget that obligation as to take two of the offices and leave out the third ? The appointment of Captain Carter as Crown Land Commissioner is perfectly illegal, and we conceive that any land sales made or other business done by him as Commissioner are, to all intents and purposes, null, as it is a contravention of a special act of the Provincial Council.

The proceedings ot the present government are, without any exception, the most

atrocious breaches of public faith and of the trust placed in them which are to be found on record. This is out-Heroding Herod with a vengeance. After all, our prognostications have proved, as usual, perfectly true, and it appears now, according to the shewing of their own acts, that the Provincial Government had about as much intention of keeping faith with the public in this matter as they have in any other of their doings. That it should be thought desirable to put Mr. Tiffen out of office is one thing, but that that deed should be done in the miserably underhanded and mean manner adopted is what no one, not even those accustomed to our first Superintendents doings, would for one moment have expected. The hankering of Captain Carter after the flesh-pots of Egypt is perfectly astonishing. He gives up one office, as everybody thought upon principle, feeling himself incompetent to fulfil the duties, and then turns round and accepts another, the duties of which will prove as bewildering and incomprehensible to him as the mysteri- ■ ous hand-writing on the wall proved to another official of ancient memory and renown There is probably not in the whole compass of Government appointments one which requires a greater amount of mind, judgment, previous knowledge, and tact than this same Crown Land Commissionership. “ Verily, brethren, the sow hath, returned to her wallowing/’ Now, having satisfactorily to themselves settled the question of the Treasury and the Crown Land Commissionership by putting an incompetent and unfit gentleman into that oliice, the Goveranient will no doubt ease its respectable mind by putting another evil spirit worse than the first into the Survey Department;—some worthy specimen of government stroke and patronage will he fixed upon to undertake the charge of this other difficult and arduous office. Here, then, we shall have two incompetents attempting to do the work of one able man, at twice the cost. And what is the natural consequence ; —all, every remaining part of the crippled remnant of the public property will be given away in the most wanton manner. By way of saving money, it is proposed to spend a thousand pounds a year to save two hundred. Oh ! the jirofound and unfathomable doings of the Herald's pet ! oh • the wonderful depth of that remarkable man. There is some comfort yet to bo derived from this pressure of direful circumstances, and that is that Captain Carter will vacate his seat in Council, and if he has any modesty he will quietly remain out, so as to save the good people the trouble of keeping him out. We are glad to see that Mr. Bousfield has come forward to (if we understand him correctly), try a fall with the Government if they put up another man. If the people of the Country Districts send in a Government man, they will at once rivet the chains which are now on them, to all eternity, and their hope of obtaining their share of attention from the Government, and of assert, ing their rights, will be utterly and for ever lost.

We will conclude our remarks upon this painful and humiliating subject—the gross broach of public trust committed by the present Provincial Government, by saying that if this act does not rouse the people to a sense of the perilous state of things nothing will. It is unfortunate that the whole Provincial Council cannot be induced, by some means to resign, in order that better men may be placed in their shoes.