MONEY-GRUBBING GOVERNORS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 145, 19 June 1872, Page 4

MONEY-GRUBBING GOVERNORS.

Under this heading the Leader has a longJej^ding article'commenting upon recent examples of gubernatorial parsimony. After alluding to the fact that the duties of ther office are not now so onerous as they were in the early days of the colony, when the Governor was all but supreme . ruler, it says that the liberal allowance made for the Queen's representative has, it is to be feared, " been mis-understood by ali British Governments ; our liberality has been construed into a desire less to have high-minded, liberal, and hospitable gentlemen as governors, than to get an infusion of blue blood into colonial circles to improve us up to an aristocratic standard. The consequence has been that of late years Australian governorships have been deemed the correct thing "to bestow on poor peers, whose titles are supposed to be equivalent to all the virtues, until the office has come to be regarded as one that by much cheeseparing will enable poor aristocrats to disencumber the family estate, provide a dower for marriageable daughters, and give younger sons a start in the world." Af^er relating Earl Belmore's meanness in drawing his salary for the one day he was .detained by stress of weather at Port Jackson Heads, the article proceeds : — _ne Governor of South Australia, Sir James Ferguson, whose official salary is £5,000. per annum, has during the whole term of office persistently absented himself from the seat of Government, residing at Robe, some 150 miles from Adelaide. There is economy in this, for it saves the necessity of entertaining the citizens and keeping up the same appearance that would be looked for if his Excellency were to reside constantly at the capital. But Sir James Ferguson was not disposed, it seems, to let the vice-regal tenements at Adelaide lie altogether idle in his absence. There was a handsome cottage at Glenelg, it seems, which previous Governors had not disdained to live in. This his Excellency let on lease for 375. 6d. per week to a private gentleman, collecting his rent with the greatest punctuality for ten months. It has been said that his Excellency had no mora right to let this place than he has to lease Government House itself, but no one has yet had the temerity to request the Queen's representative to hand over the £74 lis. to the Treasury. It is proposed, however, to sell the cottage, and so take it out of the power of future impecunious Governors to bring the name of their royal mistress and their vice-regal office into contempt. We are not in this colony without experience of gubernatorial meanness. We have had governors who have regaled their guests on home-brewed ale, the same article that is vended in the London Tom and Jerry taps at " threepence per quart in your own jugs ;" other who have converted the vice-regal grounds at Toorak into & dairy farm, putting the produce raised there into competition with the articles sold by local storekeepers. There may be vice-regal apologists to defend these small savings, for the admirable example of thrift they set the community. If, however, we are to regard this style of economy in Queen's representatives as useful public lessons, we submit that it should be carried to a logical conclusion. We should, not only be economical individually, but collectively as a people, and instead of voting governors salaries by thousands, should dole out the allowance by hundreds, and even haggle with theJEmperial authorities to get as cheap a governor as possible. » * *'■'''*■" * '' * * * These communities are not in any sense hero-worshippers, but so long as royalty is symbolised in the person of a Governor appointed by the Imperial power, and the colonists are willing to pay for it, they will have something that they can at least respect. Failing this the time is not far distant when a general demand will be made to reduce goyernor's salaries to a minimum, if only to put an end to the Imperial practice pf bestowing the office on men as a ready means of enabling them to repair their shattered fortunes." ___'"'' following extraordinary . notice appears in the New. York Times: — " Jijawyaers^who, are acquainted with facts tending to bring home charges of misconduct to any of the Judges, are requested to communicate at once with the Judiciary Committee of the Bar Association. It is to be hoped that no one will refuse to assist this committee in their investigation/ j. A Writer in the Brisbane Courier has some pointed remarks on the curious deadlock in Queensland politics. According to him it all arises " from the extraordinary clear-sightedpess, high, principle, and reverence for' the' Constitution which actuate our leading politicians. Yqu_ see now tne wonderful spectacle of 32 legislators all ready, to make solemn oath that they strongly desire to help to pass a Redistribufiipn, .Biirsalireiady to adroit,, JPj a moment itnat Supplies! for the current year ou_ht to be voted with as tittle delay

as possible; yet because the Ministry want to take Supply first and Redistribution afterwards, and the Opposition want Redistribution first and Supply afterwards, neither one nor the other can be had at all. The Ministry cannot give way a single hair's breadth to the Opposition without bringing upon themselves everlasting disgrace; tbe Opposition cannot give way in the slightest degree to the Ministry without forfeiting all title to respect; so there they all stick, and have done for this month past. Isn't it wonderful ? The Constitution is so beautifully adjusted tbat the whole framework of Civil Government will have to be shaken to pieces and started afresh from the foundations before it can be decided whether Supply shall be taken first and Redistribution afterwards, or Redistribution first and Supply afterwards, unless some of the noble thirty-two basely surrender to their opponents. The more I think of it tbe more profound is my admiration of Constitutional Government as conducted in this portion of her Majesty's dominions." In the House of Commons, on the 10th April, Mr. G. Onslow presented a petition, signed by 891 inhabitants of the parish of Tichborne and adjoining parishes in Hampshire, in which tbe petitioners stated that they had been informed that it was tbe intention of the Government to prosecute tbe claimant to the Tichborne estates for perjury at the public expense ; that they still believed in the identity of the said claimant, a belief which was shared in by a great number of tbe public at large ; and that, knowing him to he without pecuniary means for conducting his defence, fchey humbly submitted that, if the public money was to be applied to tho prosecution of the claimant, it should also be provided for his defence, because, as the petitioners were informed and believed, this'was a case in which widely different opinions prevailed. The petitioners earnestly entreated and prayed tbe House to refuse any vote of the public money for the purpose of prosecuting the claimant. The petition was, on the motion of Mr. Onslow, read by the clerk at the table.