Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5384, 29 June 1878, Page 2

It is a source of great regret to us that our observations with regard to the recent sale of the Supreme Court site should have —to use a vulgar but expressive word—“riled” the few Ministers at present in Wellington. Wo had no such purpose ; indeed, we are not without hope that if one really knew or could divine what the policy of tho present Government, practically, is likely to be, it might be found very much more in accord with our views than the rhapsodical policy with which the Premier has been fooling gaping crowds throughout the colony during the recess. So far from opposing Ministers, therefore, are we, that wo should be only too happy to give them a frank concurrence in tho promotion of the liberal interests in this colony, if we knew how they were going to set about it. But in tho absence of a better knowledge we cannot endorse, and will continue to oppose, tho revolutionary projects of their chief. When Ministers tell us, as they condescended to do yesterday, that “ Whenever the requirements of a “ community create a demand of suffi- “ cient magnituto to warrant a supply " without injury to the interest of tho

“ majority, it may be accepted as the “ duty of the Government for the time “ being to take the necessary steps to “ meet the desiderata evoked by the cir- “ cumstancea,” we have nothing to do but applaud. If this is the oracular formula which is to guide the Government in the proposed extension of Postal and Telegraph conveniences to the residents of To Aro, we may assume that it expresses the departmental sentiment of the Hon. Telegraph Commissioner, and we congratulate him upon its eloquence. There is, however, more of the ring of the orderly room than of the telegraph office about it. Wo rejoice greatly at the determination expressed by Government in favorof the residents of Te Aro, and shall not stop to criticise the singular arguments by which the Ministers seek to convince themselves of the existence of “wants” in that important district, and of the necessity of promptly resolving that these “ wants should cease to exist.” Wo ourselves, and wo believe the Chamber of Commerce also, will rejoice in having had the good fortune to act as “ sign-posts ” or indeed as any other kind of posts to “ point out the way ”to such a result. Wo humbly thus deprecate on our own behalf, and on that of the Chamber, the wrath of our masters. What we said with regard to the sale of the Supreme Court House had a general application as well as a particular application. It is notorious, and as settlement increases it will become more painfully evident, that it has been the fault of all the Governments, Provincial as well as Colonial, that they have failed to discern and provide for the future wants of the Crown, in the shape of land fox - public use, in the sevei’al centres of population. No stronger evidence of the fact is needed than is found in the admission, which Ministers themselves now make, that in order to provide for the wants of the inhabitants of Te Aro in the small matter of a Telegraph and Post Office, they will be forced to go into the market and buy or take land at an exorbitant price. Surely under these circumstances it may be regarded as imprudent to part with any portion of the vei'y small quantity of land in convenient situations which still remains in the possession of the Crown, and which is likely to be required for any necessary use in the future. The care for the administi’ation of justice in all its details now devolves upon the Colonial Government, and the necessary charges upon the colony as a whole. It ought not to be said under these circumstances that the erection of a Supreme Court House at the seat of Government must be made to depend upon the sale of a piece of land within the city of Wellington. This is practically to localise a charge which ought to be general, and to impose upon this City the necessity of submitting to the sacrifice of a valuable piece of land within its bordox’s, where there is so little left, in order to furnish money for the erection of a building in which the administration of justice in the highest Ooxxrt of the Colony can be decently and conveniently carried on. We persist in thinking that ours is the right view, Ministers’ ire notwithstanding.