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Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4355, 15 December 1882, Page 2

The circumlocution office is pursuing its traditional policy steadily. Above a year ago the Marine Hotel, on the. beach, of which Mr 8. Stepheuson was the licensee, was burned done. The time for applying for licenses was uigb, and Mr Stephen sou took no steps to Koew. Messrs £yao,

Bell, and Co., wine and spirit merchants of Auckland, had a lien on the premises, and for their own protection took out the license, paying £40 therefor. Afterwards Mr Stephenson applied to the Licensing Court to have the license transferred to another site, but this was not granted. During the sitting of Parliament Mr Stephenson petitioned for a refund of the money, which had been refused him by the Borough, J,hat body stating—firstly, that the license was taken out by the applicants with their eyes open, and they were yet entitled to exercise it; secondly, that the Council could only recognise Ryan, Bell and Co. in the-matter. On the ex parte statement of Stephenson, the Petitions Committee decided in his favor, and the next the Council heard o|||the matter was an intimation from Government that the amount had been deducted from gold duty coming to them. The Council then applied for leave to sue the Govern* ment for the money thus deducted, or to refer the matter to Judt<e Macdonald upon certain grounds which the Council set forth in the application. An answer was received to the effect that the Government could have no objection to the Council pursuing such course as advised. Thereupon the Town Clerk returned thanks for the permission to sue, and requested the Government to ask Judge Macdonald to hear the evidence. The Town Clerk read the following from the Secretary to the Treasury at the Borough Council meeting last night:-—" The Council appears to have misapprehended the nature of the answer given in my letter of the 20th Sept. last to yours of the 26th August, 'in which the Council asks that the right to sue the Government for the amount deducted may be granted, or that the case may be referred to Mr Mac* donald. The reply sent was that 'the Government can have no objection to the "Borough Council taking such steps to assert their rights as they may. be advised;' and I am now to add that while the Government can have no objection to the course indicated in the words quoted, it cannot, however, consent to submit the case to arbitration." This is a contemptible shuffle, and the man who. is responsible for it has evidently been bound so long to an office stool with' red tape that he should be pensioned off, or sent on an excursion to Timbuctoo or the North Pole. He is unsuited for these times. There is no necessity for the use of evasive diplomatic language which "no fellah " can understand, and probably was not meant to be understood. Such language as "The Government declines arbitration, but has no objection to your testing the matter in a court of law," wpuld be too simple and comprehensible for the heaven*descended geniuses at' Wellington to use. The Council is too well advised to take any steps of the kind without the permission of the Government, which is an essential preliminary. The matter has been left in the hands of the Town Clerk for him to exercise his fertile brain upon it.