The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1874.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 209, 30 September 1874, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1874.

“ We rhall 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.”

The principle of subsidizing works of f eneral utility by grants of money rom the public purse, is one of such sound, practical, common sense that there can hardly be any person found to oppose it. A project is now afoot —certainly not for the first time—to raise subscriptions for the purpose of sinking a trial artesian well in the district; the exact spot in which the experiment is to be tried we are not able yet to learn, but it is understood to be in the neighborhood of Higgins’ Hotel, at Maka.raka; and the Rond Board has voted a sum of £25 towards the furtherance of the work. We are aware that the condition on which Mr. Higgins holds his License is that a sum of £ 100, if we mistake not, is to be laid out by him in an endeavor to obtain water ; indeed it was his own offer, as an inducement for the Licensing Justices to grant the Licence in the first instance, in opposition to a numerously-signed petition against it; and it, of course, is no concern of ours as to the source whence the money conies so long as it is spent on the work in terms of Mr. Higgins' engagement. But we think the public have a right to know what stipulation, if any, the Board has made with Mr. Higgins, in the event of water being procured from a well sunk on his property. Has the Board made an unconditional grant of £25 to Mr. Higgins towards rendering his property more valuably, and to help him to keep, faith with the Licensing Bench, without holding any control over the well, and so to secure its use for the general weal ? If so, we think it an injudicious appropriation of public monev. The position chosen, or about

to be chosen, is an excellent one, being at the junction of three important main roads ; and we go so far as to say that, perhaps, none better —certainly none more useful—could be found in the district on which to put the question of water supply, by means of artesian wells, to a crucial test. It is, therefore, to be understood that we not only do not oppose the project, but are prepared to give it our warmest support. But, divested of all sentiment, it assumes a mere business phase ; and we hold it to be wrong in principle, weak in theory, and unjust in practice to make grants of public money to private individuals for the improvement and embellishment of their estate without some sort of guarantee that the publie shall reap a corresponding advantage if it ever be in the donee’s power to give it.

So far as we can learn from official sources, nothing of the kind is contemplated ; and such being the case, we would suggest to the Board the advisability of considering its position, if, in the event of water being found, the proprietor decides upon cutting it off from public use. What power would the Board have to prevent Mr. Higgins from turning the water to account in some other way, more beneficial to his own private use, and more damaging to public interests ? We do not, for one moment, suggest that Mr. Higgins will not faithfully carry out, to the letter, the implied integrity involved in his acceptance of private and public assistance. But all men are not, necessarily, bound by the acts and promises of one man. Mr. Higgins’ successor may, and probably will, refuse to be hemmed in by what he may be told was “an understanding”—entered upon some years before, with some one to whom he is in no way responsible —unless there is something more tangible than a verbal agreement to proceed on. What we propose is, that Mr. Higgins should, in the event of water being “ struck,” convey a piece of land —surrounding the well, artd convenient in size—to the Road Board, in perpetual trust, so long as the waler supply lasts, for the public benefit. The Board would then be iu a position to assert its authority in case of any future attempt to infringe upon vested rights ; and, we believe, that the undertaking would be more extensively supported by private means, if confidence were established by a guarantee being given of the description we have indicated.