The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1901. AN INQUIRY WANTED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 44, 2 March 1901, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1901. AN INQUIRY WANTED.

♦ The disgraoeful incident which took placa at Woodvilla on the occasion of the volunteers recent trip to WellingtoD, when a refreshment room was raided in a manner that might have been expected of Boer rabels sweeping down on an English settlement, still awaits a searching inquiry. That the guilty may be duly punished and a large body of honourable men relieved of the stigma at present attaching to them must be the wish of right-minded people, yet week by week the time slipi by and apparently go effort is being made to insitt on getting to the root of the matter. The Premier is impressed with the gravity of the offence, and has stated that ifiba guilty parties are discovered ha will make it impossible for them to disgracn the King's uniform in the future. Why then are not the proper steps taken to discover the guilty. Surely it cannot be expected they will come voluntarily forward and proolaim their own villainy. Equally certain is it that amongst those of their comrades who were, presumably, unwilling spectators of the affair, there are some \vho, in a Court of Inquiry, would, under pressure, divulge the name of the culprits and clear the inDocent. It is hardly likely that any volunteers will, of their own act, come forward as accusers of their eomrades in arms, as an act, though tending for good, would be wrongly misconstrued. Sooner would they remain under the stigma than act as informers, Nothing bat a proper official inquiry will be of any use, and the sooner it is held the better. The Pahiatua Herald, of 25th ultimo, has a very scathing article insisting that the Defence Department phould, without delay, order a searching and exhaustive inquiry before unbiased and competent officers. In referring to the conduct of "the low blackguards and alleged thieves" who perpetrated the spoliation and insulted the waitresses our contemporary says : " Had th- y been spoilers and bangers on at racecourses the influential journals in our large cities weu'd have howled and barked and shrieked for Moor!, but as they are clothed in the King's uniform they are under the command of officers who are probaHy men of influeiico, and our independent city contemporaries ore afraid to speak for fear of losing a few subscribers or falling foul of the Defence Department aod its advertising.'' There ought to be bo necessity for a general journalistic crusade in this matter, and our contemporary, in its cooler moment?, will probably admit that th r re is no justification for its indictment against the city pap-rs. At the same time ore thing is certain, if the department will not move witheut' pressure then that means should hell employed. Every commanding officer i present on the occasion should insist on j the charges being properly tested, and I the honour of the innocent vindicated.