WHO SENT HIM?

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 236, 14 July 1877, Page 2

WHO SENT HIM?

(To the Editor of the Path a Maii..) Sir, —The Chairman of the Harbour Board lately went to Wellington. I suppose that he had a right to go there or to Hong Kong if he liked, without asking leave of the public;. Some of my friends would not regret his total absence. I noticed that on his return (Mr Sherwood is the gentleman f am referring to—ihe Chairman of tin; Harbour Board, &c., &c.) (here was a kind of ilourish of trumpets in your paper about the wonder!id lot of business he had transacted lor the Harbour Board. There was to be an engineer sent up directly, to examine the river and draw up working plans, and I don t know what besides was going to be done*. Mr Carrnthors himself was so delighted that, to oblige the Chairman, he would take charge of the works himsell. In your paper there was not half so much said as L had hoard by word of mouth from peop'e who had been talking to the Classing .Machine (G.F.S.) He’d been to Wellington, and he’d seen this big man, and that big man, and the other hig man, and he had got (not Jor himsell} but for the Harbour Board, this thing, and that thing - , and the other thing, and he’d arranged this and that and the other, and it was all right you Jcnow- I saw to all those: thing’s —you just wait a hit. The fact is I went home and to bed and dreamed a dream. I saw the Harbour ail complete, and ships and steamers lining both sides of the river right away to Kakaramea, and on every ship, and on every building, and on every wharf, and post and corner, there I saw the figure of the Chairman of the. Harbour Board. Yes perched u;> on every masthead and funnel and perching place everywhere. lie smiled a smile which seemed to say “This is all mine—all my work —I told you I had arranged everything ; ’ and then he appeared self-satisiiedly to lean back and back Cwith arms folded accros his breast) till I thought he would jerk up and kick his own head off. But he would bounce back upright and squeak out, “ All I got was £2O gentlemen for the trip.” It was all a dream —except the £2O, There could he no mistake about that, for I see it in your paper that the Haibour Board had voted that sum towards the expense of the Chairman’s trip to (Yellington. I should like to know whether he had been appointed to go to Wellington by the Harbour Board on Harbour business, and if so, why nothing was said about it publicly. Appointments like that ought not to bo made secretly or merely" by word of mouth. In my opinion, and that of: others, there ought to have been some written authority or resolution of the Board on it. Perhaps the Chairman appointed himself. At all events he charmed the Board into paying the cost. Where is the engineer and all the wonderful things that were talked about. All gas, and the Board paid for it. The Harbour Board are to blame. If they did not appoint him to go, they ought not to have paid his expenses. It is time a change was made in the Board, and men appointed who will exorcise a little common sense, and not be gulled by' nothing but gas. I consider Mr Editor that y r ou also are to blame for not unmasking these shams, though a little excuse may be made on your account, seeing that you arc almost stranger to our way of conducting public business.—-I am, &c. NOT ALL GAS.