The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1197, 17 February 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1880.

Tire Hall Ministry boasted that it would, above all things, promote economy. This is always the cry of the Tbriea. When Beaconsfield attacked Gladstone, he used the epigram that the Liberal programme was " plundering and blundering." To compare great things with small, the New Zealand Tories emulate the British Conservatives. They also accused the Grey administration of cla33rule—of plundering, and of maladministration—blundering. Wo need not point out that no Government has so increased the national debt of Great Britain during the last twenty years as the Tory Government —that all the savings of the Gladstone administration have been squandered. Nor need we allude to the blundering in Turkey, in the Cape, in Afghanistan. The Tory Government has been a huge failure, and the next English election will show that even Jingoism is dead. In New Zealand the same thing will occur. Nor will it take long before the people in the Colony will become aware of the extravagance and blundering of New Zealand Tories. Already they have begun to reward political friends and the friends !of political friends, and already have | they begun what they call reforms, j but which mean extra burdens imposed jon the taxpayers. Let ns take as an | illustration their new method of police 1 management. After great consideration, | and with much departmental ability, the | police force was, after abolition, put on a I new footing. To save expense, and at the , same time to make the police force one in discipline, two superintendents were appointed—one for the North Island and ■one for the South Island ; for the north i Mr. Shearman was appointed, and for the | south Mr. Weldon. Both officers have, ; we believe, faithfully and ably discharged | their duties. But economy was desired, j and hence three men were appointed to do the work that had been done by one man. Mr. Inspector Broham is a political friend, or a friend of political friends—perhaps the latter would be the more accurate expression—of the Hall Ministry, and he must have promotion. What easier then than to appoint him a superintendent, and degrade Mr. Weldon from his position of superintendent of the Middle Island to that of superintendent of Otago. Ha 3 not Mr. Weldon committed a capital offence by becoming an Otago man ? And what can such as he and Otago expect from the rule of the Canterbury politicians 1 Of Mr. Broham we must say that we believe he will never set the Avon on fire. He is, as police officers go, a fair officer, but there are many we could name who have served their country longer than he has done, and who are for that reason more worthy of distinction. and quite as competent to maintain it. Let us give the name o£ one of . these officers, and it is one of many—Mr. Pender, of Timaru. Now, if Mr. Broham was fully employed before hi 3 promotion he cannot perform hi 3 new duties in addition to his old ones, hence instead of economy there must be further expenditure. Again, no one has found fault with Mr. Weldon's inspection—on the contray, his services have been appreciated by everyone, save, perhaps, the Hall Ministry. Why, then, should Mr. Weldon have his functions curtailed? But there is something that is of more importance than even consideration of officers. "We hope, however. that whatever may be the needs of the police service, the time is far distant when men who have done their duty well will be ignored. The effect of the new arrangements must be prejudicial to the force. What i 3 needed is unity and discipline. Now, this cannot be obtained if there are, for example, three inspectors for the Middle Island, unless, indeed, there is to be be an inspector over these inspectors. There can be no unity of discipline, and, as there will not be much promotion from one district to another, the men will sutler. So that, independent of the injury that has been inflicted on deserving officers and faithful servants, the Hall Ministry have done an injury to the police force. Not that the Hall 3linistry care much for this—what is long service, police force, or anything else, compared with reward to political friends and the friends of political friends ? —Nothing. One has only to look over the appointments made by the Hall Ministry to see that at last the American practice of appointing only political friends to office has been inaugurated. Members of Harbor Boards, Hospital Boards, Royal Commissions, &c., have been chosen because of their political views. Even the Christchurch Hospital Board is to be swamped by the Hall Ministry's nominees. We rejiet the inauguration of such a system. The Hall Ministry will not last for ever, and whoever succeeds them will retaliate. The Colony suffers in the meantime ; political feeling is aroused, and bitterness I*3 the result. Let it not be forgotten who began the regime. As to the disgraceful treatment Mr. Weldon has met with, there is little use in commenting on it. It is of a piece with the tactics of a party that only remained in office by gross jobbery and political bribery. But the time will come when a Ministry so lost to shame as the present, will be thrown out by indignant colonists.