THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M Resurrexi. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2086, 10 September 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M Resurrexi. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1875.

If it be true that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing to those who are ignorant of the proper way in which to apply it, no less true is it that a little power is often converted into an abuse by those who are not content with the proper use «fcf it. We alluded yesterday to the arbitrary way in which the Licensing Commissioners discharged their functions in the matter of declaring on their own responsibility (for the law does not make the same distinction) that to no female except she had been previously in the trade should a license to retail intoxicating liquors be granted. The Commissioners seem to forget that they are not constituted to make a law but simply to apply it, and though they have the right to refuse a license (we presume on sufficient grounds) to any person thej choose, yefc they bare no

right to declare that members of a particular class, community, or sex, shall be debarred from a license ipso facto because they belong to such class or sex. Thcj7 should, if they wish to act up to the duties with which they have been invested, judge of each particular case on its own individual merits. The law is laid down, and they have no right whatever to alter that law, even in the most minute particular, either by taking anything from it or adding one word to it, no matter how trivial and unimportant that word may appear. 1 hey are simply that law's administrators, and nothing more or less. When therefore they take upon themselves to draw distinctions which the law does not draw, or impose conditions which the law does not impose, they are committing as. great an act of injustice as if they disregarded some of its most binding clauses. We allude to this case again, because our attention has been drawn to another instance of a similar nature, in which a body elected for a particular purpose have exceeded their duty, by limiting what should have been an open competition to the small circle they saw fit to draw* around their own immediate neighbourhood. We allude to;the case of the Waiotahi School Committee and their late election of pupil teachers. In this case the Committee have seen fit to exclude from competition all those who are outside the comparatively limited area over which they hold sway, on the ground, we are informed, that they wish to encourage local talent as much as possible. Now if the Waiotahi Schools were supported entirely by W aiotahi rates and Waiotahi ratepayers, there would perhaps be something to be said in favour of bringing forward those whose friends and relations supported the schoolin question. Still even then the Committee would have no right of themselves to exclude candidates, unless empowered to do so by the proper parties. But the Waiotahi Schools are very far from being supported in the manner we have referred to ; the Waiotahi no more supports its own schools than it does any other school in the Province; and to limit the candidates from whom the new pupil teachers are to be appointed to those who reside in the Waiotahi district is a violation of the Education Act under which the Committee were appointed, and an abuse bf the powers with which, as members of that Committee, they were severally entrusted. What they had to do was this: they were allowed by the Central Board of Education to select pupil 1 teachers to be paid /by the Board and subject to the Board's approval, and their obvious duty was to make"the best selection they could for the interests of the schools without fear or favour. Instead of that they limit, as we have said, the candidates to those resident or attending schools in the Waiotahi district; thereby doing an act of injustice (it may be) to the schools over which they preside by preventing them obtaining the services of the best teachers possible, if those teachers lived ©utside the district, and taking upon themselves to add to the powers the Education Act conferred on them—a piece of impertinence and presumption. It will be observed that we are arguing this question of law administrators constituting themselves law makers, on the broad principle of right and wrong. We are far from accusing the commissioners in the one case of acting . with animosity in the arbitrary distinction they made, or the Waiotafei School Committee of favoritism in the limit they imposed; on the contrary, we will fully allow that the Commissioners acted in the way they deemed best for the interests of the district, and the School Committee took the course they considered most advantageous for their schools. But what we complain of is that neither had any right to act in the way they have, and that they have assumed powers which were never entrusted to them. It may be that the selections the Waiotahi Committee have made are good ones—-perhaps even the best they could have made; but we question, in the cause of education, both the wisdom and the .justice of their proceedings. It is well known that the insertion of the thin end of the wedge should be regarded with suspicion, and so we wish to draw public attention as much as possible to the great danger which underlies self-constituted authority—or rather the assumptionof power greater than that accorded by law. Once allow any law administrator to interpret a law in the way he chooses, or to use powers which the law does not give him, simply because he fancios he possesses them, and then, trivial and unimportant as the matter appeared at first,

"Many an error will by the same example rush into the State,"

and laws framed to be productive of nought but good, will by their subversion bring forth evil in abundance.

To-day another member seceded from the newly formed Thames Stock and Share Association, namely Mr M. Hennelly. It is more than probable that a new organization will be preceeded with at once.

We are informed that a police prosecution is likely to arise out of the " curious share transaction" case heard in the Kesident Magistrate's Court on Friday last, namely for breach of the Sharebrokers' Act.

We learn that Captain Brassey .has been in telegraphic communication with Colonel J. H. H. Sfe. John with reference to the new Snider rifles for the Naval Brigade, which is likely to lead to the early receipt and issue of the new arms to the blue jackets.

We understand that" Mr J. H. Salmon, Chairman of the Thames Stock and Share Association, has resigned the position and ceased to be a member of the Association.

The Bay of Plenty Times was issued in a new and enlarged form on Saturday last, and it now presents an appearance in every respect creditable to the enterprising proprieter and editor, Mr J5. M. tfdgcumbe; as also to the district which supports it. The Times is now much above the average of country papers, both in get up and matter, being well printed and ably .conducted ; and we hope that the proprietor will bo further supported in his efforts to supply the East Coast settlers with a really good local paper, advocating their requirements with ability and zeal.