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Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 465, 8 October 1879, Page 2

The noise about the celebrated Wliit-more-cum-Ingles telegram might at first sight seem disproportionate to the importance of the subject. Bat as straws

show which way the win ! blows, so does a simple four shijligg telegram show how the piiltlio money is fooled away, or r: thor how the public is defrauded hy non-payment 01. money due to it. This telegram was as private as, say, a telegram from Major Atkinson lo Sir W. Fox‘about election'matters would have been. Indeed, any less "brazen parsonage than the Colonial Secretary would have made it more private than any telegram could bp, by beginning in time, and sending Tt Through the post. But Colonel Whitmore” never thought of danger, and is apparently above the weakness of shame that be.gan with the first sin. While admitting that it is the “ continuance of an abominable system began in 1869,”, he declares “ he is not ashamed of it.” It is bad enough that party purposes should be served by bribes, or “ considerations,” given at public expense, hut to make the public pay for tbe most expensive method of offering tbe bribe, or consideration, is like borrowing a man’s buggy in which to elope with his wife. We have heard of a commercial traveller who used his M.H,R. railway pass while following his business, but this is a joke beside offering a bribe by * urgent’ telegram,atpublieexpehse. An ‘urgent’ Government telegram' takes precedence of all others. The operator would have to make a ‘ life and death ’ telegram, or a telegram relating to the arrest of prisoners, wait until he had offered this bribe which, by the way, is supposed to have been a seat in the Legislative Council, in case of defeat, with, of course, £2lO a year attached. Had that operator hud the nerve to demand payment, and to insist that it was a private telegram, his billet would not have been worth a pinch of salt. We said that a straw shows how the wind blows, and so does this telegram. For the year ending June 30th, 1879, the number of Government telegrams has been £246,961, being an increase of 52,118 over last year. The value of these messages has been £26,949. This is about 700 messages per day, which we must admit is smart work. Add to this that the Hineraoa, whose fires have not been out for several months, is fairly broken down with over work, and that the cost of working her has exceeded the amount voted by over £4,000, and we have the picture of the poor man’s friends in office. -