The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1882.

Temuka Leader, Issue 919, 18 February 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1882.

To-Day the residents of this district will be called upon tp. nominate five persons to act as a Licensing Committee. This is the first step towards bringing the new Act into force, and therefore it is very important that the ratepayers should realise fully the gravity of the action which they are called upon to take. The Committee which are to bo appointed now will Hold office for one year, and during that time they will have great powers vested in them. It is therefore necessary that they should be men of sound judgment, men capable of discriminating between right and wrong, men of broad ideas, who have no leaning towards extreme views of any kind. This is the class of men that cm administer the now law fairly, and such men alone should be elected. There is no doubt that there will be some difficulty in working under the new Act, at any rata until such lime as it is properly understood, or amended, because as it is at present it is such a heterogenous conglomeration of clauses, rections, subsections, exceptions, and so forth, that it would puzzle the combined ingenuity’ of twenty Philadelpi ia lawyers. The administration, of new laws is always difficult, and it takes some time, and some alterations often, before they can be got to work smoothly. Correspondents in another column complains of the Hotelkeepers and the Good Templars taking upon themselves the settlement of the question ajs to whom they, should nominate. We do not think that much fault can be found with them for agreeing on a point on whiph both parties feel keenly, nor do we think that much fault, can be found with the gentlemen whom they have resolved to nominate. Three, of them have had previous experience on the Licensing Bench, and it must be admitted on all sides that they have always dgalt fairly and justly with every case on which they have been called upon to adjudicate. The fact that the Hotelkeepers—the very r men on whose corns they would have trodden if they had trodden on any —now agree to nomir nate them, shows that these gentlemen have been just in their dealings in the past, and therefore we think that they at anj’rate. are the fittest and the best men that can be got in the district to act as members, of the Licensing Committee. Another of the gentlemen who have been named by the Pub)ican-cam-Good lemplar meeting has proved himself-to be possessed of great aptitude for. public business, and of good administrative capabilities, and is therefore likely to,prove a good Licensing Committeeman. We have no fault to find with the fifth one, only that we cannot endorse the ticket on which he is running, it having on it the imprint of a class ;. hut, even with that objection of one member being the representative of a class, we think that on the whole the, gentlemen whose names have already been made public would make a, very fair Committee. But while we admit that the combined meeting of Publicans and Good TJemplars had every,right to choose those whom they wish to elect, we at the same lime agree with our correspondenls that the opinion of the public.ought to be obtained on the matter. The Good Templars and the Hotelkeepers combined with all their '“.sisters, and their cousins, and their aunts, ’’ form,bpt a very small minority of the ratepayers, and therefore cannot, be regarded as representing the feelings of the public at large. The only way in which the public will have an opportunity of endorsing or vetneing the action which has already been taken is by going to,the poll, and that can only be done by nominating more than five members. If only five are nominated, there can be no election, as that ia the, number required tO form a Committee, and if there are no

niore candidates they will be declared elected on the spot. If our correspondent therefore are dissatisfied those select d by the combined meeting, their proper course to nominate someothers, and get their friends to nominate more. By doing this they will give the ratepayers an opportunity of ejecting such men as they think most suitable to fill the position, and they will have no cause to complain of the question having been settled by a minority.

The “ penny wise, pound foolish,” way in which our railways are managed loses to it a good deal of money which it might earn with very little extra expense. This week Mr Grant bought 70,0 sheep at Ashburton, and had them driven to Temuka, as it would cost him about head pore to bring them down by train. He is about to send 10,000 sheep to Otago, and intends employing men to drive them as he finds it would cost three or four times as much to send them by train. Mr Grant states that he would be willing to pay one, penny by train from Ashburton more than it cost him to drive them,, and do the same thing as regards the-journey to Otago. Now is it not a very shortsighted policy on the part of the railway authorities co let this money slip through +heir fingers. They must run the trains at any rate, and would it not be wise for them to take, the sheep at a rate that would pay. It would be advantageous to the railway and to, Mr Grant if they did. Why not conduct the railways on the same principle that private individuals transact their business? Is there a merchant in existence who tvould not give a liberal discount on a large order? The way in which railways are managed is, we think, a great mistake