THE STANDARD. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1873.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 64, 25 June 1873, Page 2

THE STANDARD.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1873.

■“We shall sell to no man justice or right : We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

In a week or two the Ratepayers of the Poverty Bay Highway District will be called upon to receive an account of stewardship from the members of the Board for the year ending on the 30th of June ; they will also have to exercise their voting privileges in the election of five members to serve for the ensuing twelve months; and to fix the rate at which property is to be assessed during the same period. We have heard that it is the intention of more than one member to retire from the Board and not to seek re-election; this is not at all to be wondered at; and, indeed, such a wise determination may be productive of good, for it will shew, at any rate, that the Road Board bed is not one of roses, and that the position and duties appertaining to the acceptance of membership, are not of that enviable character which some imagine them to be. It is too late and somewhat out of season for the purpose of the annual election, now to discuss the advisability of either extending or partitioning the present district; but in view of a possibility that it may be enlarged, we think many settlers, otherwise desirous of taking a seat at the Board, will hold aloof in dismay —at least the mind of the present members is at one with our own as to the sheer impossibility of any Road Board doing the work contained in a district large enough for a province. We have not the remotest idea that the Superintendent will accede to the prayer of a petition, (even if properly prepared) having for its object the enlargement of a district from 50,000 acres tn about a million and a-half acres in extent, the North and South boundaries of which are 150 miles apart. Certainly His Honor will not be influenced by the decision of the 18 settlers who have taken upon themselves to determine a most important question —in which the interests of the whole district are involved, —and who know so little of the constitutional modus operandi, in public matters, that they have adopted the rather silly method of forwarding their resolution to the Superintendent through the Road Board! We are sorry to see that our respected Resident Magistrate has, with a too pliant facility to be “ all things to " all men,” lent his name to this official farce. But, having done so, we ask him and the Road Board wAy the minutes nf the public meeting, (at which only 40

persons attended, and decided that the district should be enlarged) were sent through that body ? With equal reasonableness the meeting might have decided that the “moon is made of “ green cheese,” and, have sent “ the “ minutes ” through the School Committee. Tenterden Steeple has as much affinity with the Goodwin Sands, as the Road Board have with that decision: indeed, the three members who were at the meeting were understood to be adverse to its proceedings. And, if so, why did they not stop the passage of that with which they disagreed ? We perfectly understand that their act (supposing them to have complied with the request of Dr. Nesbitt) does not necessarily commit them to an endorsement of the opinions expressed in the resolution ; but we hold it to be their special prerogative and duty to veto any request, the compliance with which is calculated to bring themselves and the district into ridicule, especially in view of the fact that the course adopted by the meeting, whose cause they indirectly promote, is as thoroughly ultra vires, as any petty despotism can be. The fourth clause of the “Highways Act, 1871,” and his own good sense, are the only material the Superintendent has to work on. That clause is silent as to any one, except the Superintendent, having power in the alteration or formation of districts : this is much to be regretted ; but as it is so, it stands to reason that he will require some more weighty influence in disturbing present arrangements, than a resolution carried by a majority of six, where only eighteen voted in all.

We have reviewed the position in which matters stand so far with a view to preparing the public mind for a consideration and discussion of the question of dividing the present district, after the legitimate business of the Annual Meeting has been disposed of. Assuming that some line of action may be foreshadowed, if not finally adopted, we would urge a modification of Mr. J. W. Johnson’s proposition. That gentleman, speaking with authority as a member of the Road Board, proposed dividing the country into three districts excluding the lands between Turanganui river and Tologa Bay. We propose four, including that country as a separate district, and a Town Board for Gisborne. The important and increasing interests of a tolerably large community are involved in, and dependent on, their sanitary and social condition. It is unworthy of the residents of this town to be contented to remain an appendage of a Country Road Board. There are many subjects requiring separate aid, iu supporting which Road Boards cannot undertake. We are not writing slightingly of their usefulness now that we feel strong enough to support ourselves. The Town wants to be lighted and paved; it requires (and ought to have) a fire brigade. It requires the enforcement of sanitary conditions, without which no town can expect to escape endemical interruptions of health —in short its catalogue of wants contains many things which the general administration of funds cannot apply locally. It is true that the Highways Act gives power to ratepayers to authorize Road Boards to levy an additional rate for such extra “ works as “ may be considered necessarybut this would involve an immediate clashing of interests. Power is also granted direct to Road Boards. under the “ Highway “ Boards Rmpojvering Act, 1872,” to levy a “ separate ” rate for the “ special “benefit of any particular portion of “the Highway district, with the ap- “ proval of the Superintendent, to the “ extent of five per cent, on all rateable “property situated within such por“tion.” And this, while practicable under the existing regime, only strengthens our argument in favor of separation, and the appointment of a Town Board.

Before leaving this subject we must express a hope that the Chairman of the present Board (we may appeal in vain, but we do so in good faith) will see his way to laying before the meeting a written report of the works executed during the last year, and explaining the state of affairs as they stand at the time of the Board’s expiration of office. They will loose nothing by such a record, while the public will be gainers ; to say nothing or such a proceeding being the business-like corollary tn a_ relinquishment of official duty.

Mr. Sheehan was a passenger by the p.e. Comerang on Friday last. He proceeded to Napier to attend the Sittings of the Supreme Court there. Cheap Pios. — Mr. Wyllie finds that the large herd of swine on his run, cause so much destruction to his sheep that he advertizes for any one to shoot and take them away, on permission being granted. The pigs are quite tame and should offer an inducement to bacon curers to lay in a stock. We learn by last mail from the South that the recent differences between the Directors of the Napier Telegraph and Mr. Price, the Editor, have been satisfactorily arranged—“smothed over” is the Herald's expression, which we take to be the more correct one, as it is simply impossible to conceive of any editor working under the dictatorship of an ignorant, Shakespeare Road, shopkeeper,who can’t explain the difference between an ’ouse, a nin, and an ’ut.

“ Please Exchange.”—This intimation has been sent to us more than once lately from contemporaries North and South. The last were from the Dunedin Star, and the Auckland Herald. We can only assure our friends that their exchanges drop very irregulaily, and that every issue of the Standard is regularly posted, not sent hap-hazard, and ought to arrive as addressed. A crusade against the Post office might do good ; at least if the mail conduct of other ports is carried on, on the (anything but) liberal and efficient scale that it is in Gisborne, it is highly necessary. The other evening on the arrival of the Tawera from Auckland the mail bags were near being taken up by the police, os vagrants, but that they found protection in the bar parlor of the Argyll Hotel until next morning, when some one saw them safely to their destination 1

Olympic Theatre. —The attendance at this place of amusement on Monday evening must have been very gratifying to the management and members of the Gisborne Dramatic Society. A greater compliment cannot be paid to any performer than to request that a bill of fare should be repeated; especially in small towns, where the majority of the audience is composed of the same persons on each occasion ; and we are glad that the talent of our local amateurs has received a flattering and substantial recognition, by an addition of patronage which they, under other circumstances, might have thought it presumptuous to expect. If there were any good grounds for favorable comment on their first performance, there certainly are many more for special approbation on the second. Confidence comes with practice, and a familiar identification of one’s-self with the character lie or she attempts to delineate. This was noticeable in the stage business on Monday night and a more thorough naturalness was apparent as each succeeded in disengaging his mind from the newness of his position. Individuality is the acme of all character acting, and we recommend some of those who evidently have a taste for this sort of thing to “study well their part.” They must learn to “deliver” a passage, as well as “ speak ” one, as occasion may require ; to conquer imperfect pronunciation, and observe the rules of grammatic elocution. The “action must be suited to the word,” and emphatic utterances rightly poised. Our remarks must betaken as they are given—kindly, and with the best wishes for the Society’s success. We purposely refrain from citing any performer for individual approbation. The best were still the best, and the worst a little better. One word in conclusion: if possible do let us see some de facto women ; in female characters men are all very well dressed up as women while performing feats of mountebankism, but, Oh! we shudder at the unpoetic idea of two bucks, one in petticoats, cuddling each other before the public. The Hawke’s Hay Herald of the sth June comments upon a paragraph which appeared recently in our columns upon the state of the Gisborne School Building, and its utter unfitness for either School duties or Church service during inclement weather. It proceeds to quote from the paragraph with this introductory observation : —“ If the following, from the Standard, is correct, the zeal of our Poverty Bay neighbors by no means keeps pace with their new found commercial enterprize.” We are not complimented by any means in the implied doubt as to our veracity ; although we readily acquit our contemporary of intentionally conveying an idea that we have misrepresented the state of affairs here, with respect to which we deemed it right to draw public attention. We repeat, in order that it may catch the eye of both Ecclesiastical and Government authorities that both Church and School matters are in a very unsatisfactory condition. But we cannot endorse the belief entertained of us by strangers, that the zeal of the settlers in this direction does not keep pace with their other duties of citizenship. The parsimonious restrictions placed by the Central Board of Education on the action of School Committees, put it quite out of the power of the latter to control School affairs successfully; while the tedious, silent, and unexplained delay in matters connected with the Church, are provocative of a feeling of great disappointment. Unhappily, the house is now divided against itself, and denominational efforts are splitting in twain a joint desire to amalgamate until such times as each congregation is large enough to maintain itself. At present an attempt to support them separately, would end in the failure of both. That, however, something must be done, was painfully apparent even so recently as last Sabbath evening, when the Rev. Mr. Root stopped in the service and invited worshippers to take up a position out of the cold draught. It was not our intention to pursue this subject at this length, but we cannot refrain from offering one or two suggestions for consideration. With reference to the School, the Committee have again invited the attention of the Central Board to the matter, in the hope that that body will do something to the building. With regard towthe Church funds we propose that they should be amalgamated. As we have said two Churches cannot be /■ / . -

supported here yet. Two clergymen are, undoubtedly, necessary, to relieve each other in the country ministrations ; but there is no earthly (certainly no heavenly) reason why they cannot occupy the same pulpits, each in the other s absence. We have a Pastor residing amongst us, who came to oecupv the Cure while others have been procrastinating for years. He uas energetic and as well liked as any we shall possibly have from the Episcopalian body, while they, with all their host, only come flitting—less often than angels’ visits backwards and forwards when business can be profitably blended with pleasure. Our proposal is then that the sum of one of the Church building funds be lent to the other, which ever u the better advanced, towards building a Church at once, the money bearing interest to be returned at a future time to be agreed upon Any extra exertion required by the people towards this end will meet, we are sure, with a hearty response, while a division of effort will perpetuate the present inconveniences. In the mean time we again suggest permission be obtained to occupy the Courthouse for Sunday services.