The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 410, 22 March 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1879.

“ Scandalous and villainous injustice,”' is what a Wellington contemporary calls the dismissal from the public service of Mr Henry Jackson, the Chief Surveyor of the Wellington Provincial District. Mr Jackson is known to stand very high in his’ profession, and - his- dismissal is said to arise solely from jealousy on the part of Mr Thompson, the SurveyorGeneral, who is reported to have laid some very frivolous charges against his subordinate officer. A commission was appointed, which held a private enquiry, none of the evidence being published, in the newspapers. The commission found Mr Jackson guilty, it is again said, without the slightest ground, and'he at once received an order to resign, or submit to dismissal. Although twelve months’ salary was offered, to induce him to adopt the former course, he manfully refused to help the responsibility off Mr Thompson’s shoulders. H's dismissal followed double quick. Our contemporary fairly boils Over with wrath at the whole affnirj as a miserable persecution, predicts.. .Parliamentary enquiry, and general public indignation. If the case is as bad as it is represented to be, we hope the prediction will prove true. We will not rashly commit ourselves to either side, hot knowing what the charges were, or how they were sustained. It is conceivable that there may be'ground for serious charges even against a Chief Surveyor, and it is even possible that there may be as much virtue extant as would lead to such charges, being laid. Suppose, for instance, that Mr Jackson has insisted upon potting a very large district to immense inconvenience, to save himself : b little’ trouble ; that he, for his own convenience, deprived some District Land Office in which a great amount of business was done, of its maps; thus making Scores of people travel long journeys, scores more write :and telegraph for information;'and wait, ind wait, and wait, for the swift replies of officialdom, till patience is exhausted, and a bad purchase made, or a good one lost; making, moreover, the public purse lose hundreds bf pounds'of land revenue through the uncertainty of buyers, who cannot make the long journey, and will not buy s. pig in a poke. Suppose he has done all this, rather than make an occasional journey himself ? We, of course, do not say that Mr Jackson has' done this, we only ask the reader to suppose it, for the sake of showing that it is, possible for a Chief Surveyor to deserve the treatment said to be “ scandalously and villainously” unjust* in this case. But this is not the only' way in which the dismissed gentleman may have offended. It is possible that he has fixed the site of some new township, intended to be-the centre of an important district, in a swamp. Lot hot the reader be impatient ; we said above that we did’nt know the ins and outs of the ease, and we don’t say. the thing was actually done; wo would hardly expect the reader to ..believe us if we did ; we only wish to. show that it is possible for a Chief Surveyor to be guilty of some slight wrong. Of course it will be objected, that to place a town in a swamp might- one-day cost millions for drainage...and wonld .be a good thing for doctors and undertakers. We must, in self defence, be allowed to repeat that we did not say the thing was! done; but suppose,—suppose he was in danger of being late for tea, suppose a shower was threatening and the clouds gathering on the Mou-t —that is,'oh the sky, what' would millions, doctors and undertakers,be to a Chief Surveyor in such a case V A Chief Surveyor must have his tea, we; suppose, and it people will buy sections in a bog, let them. If our readers will only think over the matter, they will see that our supposition is conceivable. But possibly we are still wide of the mark ; perhaps neither of these things was laid to Mr Jackson’s charge. Let us then suppose that he has recommended a doubly expensive, and doubly useless line of railway from —— No, we conld not believe it ourselves—and now we think of it we have betrayed our ignorance of the world; for we have only guessed at cases, and in which, no one but the. public would be injured or inconvenienced, as if a Chief Surveyor ever got into trouble for that For fear of Committing ourselves further, we will let the subject drop, hnt we shall watch with interest to see what the charges really arc.