The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3110, 5 February 1879, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1879.

The idiosyncrasy of " our other member/ Mr William Eowe, is pretty well known. Whenever it assumes a new phase it is sure to be of a decided character. The latest development is of a rabid type, inasmuch as it is what Shakespeare calls e 11 damnable iteration" of complaints against the Mayor and County Chairman, because they, as the mouthpieces of the Borough and County Councils, have intimated that those bodies will no longer be the milch cows of the United Pumping Association. In ordinary'cases Mr Howe's impulsive utterances would not carry any weight, neither do they now amongst persons who take the trouble of examining for themselves before coming to a conclusion on any subject; but there is a class who may take Mr Eowe's word for it that the County offices are a den of iniquity and corruption, and that the present is the " worst Mayor ever elected," simply because the two local bodies refuged any longer to divert their legitimate incomes from the proper channel to relieve the wealthy shareholders of an influential company of their liabilities. The vials (the inexhaustible bottles, we should say) of Mr Howe's wrath have for a long time been pouring out upon the head of the County Chairman, for some alleged but vaguely stated pieces of jobbery and corruption. During the last week or so the Mayor has come in for a share of the labia! wrath of our other member, and as the fulminations against the County Chairman moderated, in the Mayor's direction they became intensified. The grievance is entirely Mr Eowe's ; we do not think he has yet made a single convert; and perhaps this fact may have had the effect of goading him to his present state of anger. .Now, it would appear that Mr Eowe some months ago conceived the idea of forming a mammoth company to take over the Big Pump and its belongings—save and except the £50,000 claim which was handed over to the Thames County as an endowment for the people. It seenls to have been a part of Mr Eowe's brilliant conception that any company taking over the Big Pump and other properties should not only get the same for nothing, but (1) a loan of £4000 or £5000 from the Government, negotiated on the credit of the local bodies, and (2) all the gold duty collected by the local bodies within the area drained by the pump ; the proprietors or shareholders to contribute soujo othur amount or " unknown quantity" of money to carry on vaguely defined

works at their discretion, the local bodies

having no voice in the matter. As Mr Rowe expressively puts it, " All that's knocked on the head now." u And a Rood thing too," County and Borough will say. The fact is, Mr Rowe aud his Auckland patrons seem to have commenced at the wrong end. If they had come down with an offer to the local bodies to spend, say £10,000, extending over a period of two years, in sinking the TT.P.A. shaft another' two or three hundred feet and in extending the south drive until a connection with the Waio Karaka drainage system was effected —on the condition that the local bodies should oblain from the Government a portion of the prospecting grant or a loan in lieu thereof, with a further proviso that assistance should be guaranteed to the work from the gold duty receivable—we say the local bodies would most likely bave given their careful consideration to the scheme, and the Pumping Association directors might now have had the satisfaction of seeing their works going. Even now it is not too late for some such proposal. We believe both : County and Borough recognise the desira- ! bility of seeing the Pump again started, and are not averse to doing all they can to secure that end, even to a sacrifice of some of their revenue; but any onesided, selfish proposals they will reject; and in that rejection they will have the support of the people. If Mr Rowe imagines that he has a mission to fulfil, let him set about it in a practical form, instead of declaiming at street corners against the local bodies. We should not have devoted so much space to this matter but for the purpose ! of setting him right, and shewing him theinutility of trying to fix blame where noue can be imputed, while shielding those whose selfishness and want of common prudence have brought about the stoppage of the pumps.