The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1873.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 185, 2 August 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1873.

Mr Watehhouse has been revealing the secrets of the Cabinet, and in doing so has made assertions, and adduced charges to which fhi' Government must reply either by way of contradiction or in juslification of their motions. The first of these hffecta (ho late Governor rather than the members of the Executive, since ifc shows thai, hie Excellency not only was willing to ffo bo. but actually did abrogate the high functions vested in him as the officer administering the government of the colony. Sir Greorge Bowen wns, ns «'c all know quiio well, us fond of travelling nbouf, l)cinf{ fcl.n'l, and m«ki<>{* grandilo(|'KHjt Hpifc.iM'H in iN'cw Znabmd as ht; ia in Victoria, »nd probubly be did not care (o be troubled wim affairs of the Slate when oo biH pbiißuio iripß, so he appenrs fo Jmvw » loplfd Uih vary simple, but somewhat, durn'croua plan of leaving with the Undcr-iSot rctury blauk forms ani prdclainutiofiH with bis Hi^nature affixed to them, 10 tie rnudti hhc of as his Miriißtera initfbt think (it. In oihi;r words he consculc"! to occupy the very humiliating i otsiiion of a dummy. But we will let Mr Waterhouse upeuk for himself. He is t:on»rniulatinj,' the Couucil on the arrival in New Zealand of a Governor " not un-

accustomed to colonial life, and still more, not unaccustomed to official life in Great BritaiD," and he does so in the hope that under the regime of Sir J. Fergusson, we shall in the future see " an amendment of practices which, if continued, will be fraught with danger to the conntry at large." Ho then proceeds to state distinctly the naturo of one of those particular practices : — "While hia Excellency Sir G-eorge Bowen was in the other Island," he sayg, "one day the Controller-General came to me in a stale of some alarm to say that the funds at the Bank wero run short, and that it was necessary that dEIOO.OOO should be transferred from what may be called, for the sake of clearness, the dormant banking fund into the active bonking fund. I was in a state of something like apprehension as to what the consequences might be of not being able to transfer this amount in time. I sent for the Under Secretary and explained the matter to him, stating my apprehensions as to the public inconvenience which might be occasioned by the absence of His Excellency from Wellington at that particular juncture. Somewhat to my astonishment, no particular surprise was evinced at my statement, the Under Secretary merely remarking that do alarm need be felt, as ho had a form signed by the Governor which doubtless would be available for the occasion. In the press of business I neglected at the time to make further inquiries. A day or two afterwards it was proposed to the Government that a proclamation of a most important character should be issued. The question was considered by the Government, and they determined that it was not desirable that the proclamation should be issued. Within n day or two afterwards, to my astonishment, a document w.-is placed iv my hands containing this very proclation, with his Excellency's signature attached to it. His Excellency was in Otago »t the time, and I said, when this document was produced, "How in the world did you get the Governor's signature ? " " Oh, very simply. There are a number of the Governor's signatures in blank, kept in one of the drawers in the Colonial Secretary's office, available whenever they are required." I was completely taken aback at the existence of such a lax system, and told the Under Secretary that if there were those blank forms he should lake them under hie tpeoial charge, and that they should be locked up in an iron safe in the buildincr." In the Governor's commission, " Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Queen " &c, sends greetings to " Our Right Trusty and Well-Beloved Councillor, Sir George Fergusson Boweu, Knight" &c, and having expressed her confidence in his " prudence, courage, and loyalty," proceeds to say : — " We do hereby authorise and command you in due manner to do and execute all things that shall belong to your said command, and to the true!; wo have reposed in you, according to, and in pursuance of," certain Acts. The manner in which Sir George Bowen exercised the trust reposed in him may best be ascertained by the instructive little narrative related as above by Mr Waterhouse. Wo shall bo anxious to see the next despatch addressed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Sir George Bowen after he has received information of the style in which he administered the Government of New Zealand. Having exposed the carelessness thus displayed by the Governor, Mr Waterhouse proceeds to attack the Executive. He complains that the most important provisions of the Civil Service and Public Revenues Acts have not only been allowed to remain a dead letter, but that in the administration of them the law of the land has been violated. He asserts that while "we have an Act called the Attorney General's Act, uuder which the Government are authorised to secure the services of an Attorney-General at a salary of £1000 a-year," .they have appointed a gentleman to that position at a salary of £1200 a-year. And he further states that whereas the regulations UDder the Civil Service Actprovide that the travelling allowance to a Minister of the Crown or a Judge shall be £2 2s a day, in some instances double that sum has been paid. Upon this he remarks — "Under what authority these payments in excess of the regulations have been made I cannot say, but if our system of audit was worth anything, no payment in violation of the law, or of regulations having the force of law, would occur without its being brought to tho knowledge of the Legislature." Altogether, Mr Waterbouso has made a few very pretty little disclosures that will afford to the Opposition, if there be one, an excellent vantage ground for making an attack, and Ministers an opportunity of displaying their akill in the noble art of self-defence,