The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1882.

Temuka Leader, Issue 930, 21 March 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1882.

The. Timaru, Harbor. Board, evidently taking a lesson from, the Gov. rnment, have gone in for retrenchment, and the result has been much discontent amongst its,officers. Two letters—one from the Engineer, and one from the Harbormaster referring to this matter were r?ad at the last meeting of the Board, and after some discussion it was decided to let them stand, over for consideration at a full meeting of the Board. There is one of these—the Harbormaster—with whom we heartily sympathise. He has been sixteen years Harbormaster at Timaru, and during that time we venture to say that he has never ben found guilty of any dereliction of duty. In fact,a more careful, active, watchful, efficient officer than Captain Mills it would be almost impossible to fipd,:an'd it is certainly harsh treatment to ( say how, as Mr Turnbull said at last Board.meeting, that he ought to be dis missed; and a better men got in his pi,ace. Where could a better man be got. we, should like to know? Captain Mills, besides having high qualifications, has sixteen years’ experience of the port

.of Timaru, and that is worth to him i more than alI the -other ta'amiiighe lias had in Ins life to discharge his duties efficiently as a harbor mister, [t would take a long time for h new/ ma'n to quire the amount of 'local knowledge Captain Mills has, after his sixteen years’ experience, and without local knowledge it would not be easy to discharge the duties appertaining to his office. When we add to this the fact that Captain Mills is a«» officer that ha-< proved himself trustworthy, that has been “ tried and not found wm ing,” can we com to any other conclusion than that a better man could not be got, and that the Board that would dismiss him would be actuated by other motives than the public good or the intsn-st of the Harbor. But the reason Mr Turn bull gave for suggesting the dismissal of Captain Mills was still more extra' ydinary. It that a great deal o* negligence had been sho.wn in connection with the wreck of the City of Cashmere. Now, an investigation into, the wreck of that ill-fated vessel has been held before a properly constituted, and competent tribunal, and after o most exhaustive inquiry extending over several days’ Captain Mills was exonerated from all blame. Men of experience who watched that disaster expressed admiration of the efforts made by Captain Mills to save her, and when he landed from her after she was abandoned he was cheered by those who had witnessed the whole affair. It is impossible therefore to conceive how anyone in his senses, could stand up now and say that, because of that disaster Captain Mills shou d be punished by dismissal from a position, which he has filled for the last sixteen years with credit to himself and satisfaction to his employers. We thought that the most blatant demagogue would be afraid to make such a pioposal in any sane community lest ho should be hooted with scorn for suggesting such injustice. And yet Mr Turnbull, M H.R. for Timaru. did this. What a pity someone did not tell Mr Turnbull that if he had minded his duties as the representative of Timaru in Wellington last session, as wdl as t aptain Mills minded his business as harbormaster in Timaru, he would not have allowed the Government to get at the blindside of the Harbor Board, and take their land a way. Mr Turnbull was the veritable blindside of the Harbor Bo a rd and the Government Engineers found it very easy to “ bamboozle ” him. They him the plans but the blindside’s visual organs glanced so carelessly over them that he never noticed the in. justice that was being done, an 1 when he returned to his seat on the Harbor Board, and his neg igence was poiuta d out to him, he received the rebuke with very bad grace. Is there an instance of such carelessness in the whole career of Captain Mills ? When has he been ao used of neglecting his duty ? and yet Mr Turnbull does not hesitate to move to dismiss him at a month’s notice after sixteen years service. We cannot understand Mr Turnbull. Up to the present we had looked upon him as a very just man in whom there was a great deal of the milk of human kindness, and who would not like to injure anyone, but in his action in this matter there is an absence of good taste, good sense, and a complete disregard for the commandment Do unto others as you would wish others to do unto you.” If Captain Sutter had made this attack on Captain. Mills we should not have been in the lest surprised. That gent'eman has. a penchant for attacking the officers or every public body to which he belongs. It is a playful way he has to try their temper perhaps, or to stir them up, or it may be that he relieves himself of a super-abundance of bile in this manner but we do not remember him going to the extent of suggesting a dismissal. He has a particular *• down” on Engineers. They are to him as the proverbial red rag is to the bull. The Engineer attached to any body of which the Captain is a member will find himself in everlasting hot water, and consequently when we see him “ pitching into” the Harbor Board Engineer we only smile and say ‘ the old man had his bit of fon today.” The grievance of the Harbor Board Engineer in this instance, however, is not one in which we so deep an interest as that of Captain Mills, although we do not approve of the action taken by the Board in bis case either. All that has been done to him is to reduce his salary from £ 720 to =£soo a year. As a reason why this should not be done he points out in his letter the salaries other engineers are getting, and lays great stress on being carrying out his own scheme instead of someone elso’s. Both these arguments are not worth

much. In the flrist place it is nothing to the Timaru Harbor Board what salaries may be given by other bodies. If other pubic bodies like to give large salaries that is no reason why the Harbor Board at Timaru should do the s>-rae. And in the second place Mr Goodall can hardly call the plans his own, as his original p ans were greatly modified by the Commission of Engineers appointed by the Government,Mr Goodall, however, adduces string arguments to she w that his : alary should no* he reduced. He says that w ien be <*t-r »*d into the service of the Board le o( lieved his i-alary (£72u) would be given to bun so long as be remained im- the employment of the Board, that he had effected a saving of between £8o ? 0C0 and £90,000 in carrying out the works, that his work has proved an immense success, and concludes by hinting in a mild way that under these circumstances the. Board shows a wsgit o,f proper appreciation of his worth by reducing his salary. Five hundred pounds a year is e very good salary, and we are not prepared t) say that it is not enough, but at the. same time,, when, the Board made an. agreement to, give £720 they ought, certainly stick to it, more especially as they are satisfied with, the value they are receiving for it. It looks very ungenerous to reduce the salary ot the, Engineer now, when his work lias, proved successful. It more usually happens that employees of private, persons as well as public bodies, who show themselves competent workmen, and carry out th?ir duties satisfactorily get their salaries increased with length of service instead of being reduced, and consequently we. tnink the. Board have gone in. for reluction at the. wrong time. If the Board had*been firseeing enough t.o know that. £720 a year was more thfm,thpy could afford and offered £sbo or £6OO to, Mr Goodall in the beginning, he would have, accepted it, aud be mpre contented today. Besides what signifies the. difference it makes. Say that the work ; will last for from tw,p to three years longer, the saving effected by the re. duction would be only £6OO or £7oo. Place that besides the £BO,OOO or.£90,0' 0 which Mr Goodall says he. has saved for the Board, aud say is it, wise to reduce Mr Goodall’s salary» it not possible that Mr Good a!!, when, he* fi’ ds such a want of appreciation- of;hJslabors, may in future give himself very little trouble in study Tig economy. It-, is not possible he may put the Board? to ten times more expense than the, amount which would be saved bv the. reduction of bis salary, especially asthe Board gives bim liberty to act as a. Consulting Engineer. Is it not possible he may devote his energies and. brains to devising new schemas for other places, and n~g'ect his business at home. We think the Harbor Board, has not behaved either sensibly or honorably in reducing the salary, and therefore, we think, the best thing they could do now is to let it alone.