OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

Waikato Argus, Volume VII, Issue 464, 22 July 1899, Page 3

OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

(FROM OUR OWN' CORRESPONDENT)

A gentle languor seems to broo 1 over matters political here ut the present moment. Some slight excitement was caused by the speeches of Messrs Hutchesou urd Jellieoe, the candidates for the seat resigned by the former, but their orations ai.d the coming hyo-elcc-tion have done little more thin feebly stimulate the Wellington pulse. Nor is theft; any very fervid inteiest taken in thn proceedings of the Roy d Commis-ion appointed to enquire into fhe Marine Scand&l. Pietty general feeling obtains that there it little more to be said on thn much-debated question. The najori'y probably holds that a job has without ('oubt reen effected, but that it will bs a matter of considerable difficulty to sheet the matter home to anyone. Nevertheless it is certain that the affiir will do" be forgotten and though people may decline to be bothered any more with the dota.ls at present, it will surely pop up like a resurrected ghost at the general election. THE RAKAIA RAILWAY ACCIDENT. Under the heading " Another Abortive Commission," last uipln's Evening Post has a somewhat scathing article upon railway depirtmental administration, more especially with relation to the Rakaia accident. The Post, while admitting that the Government ha 1 secured the services of Mr Pendleton, of South Austialia, to assist the Commission (Judje Ward and Mr James M'Kerrow), said it declares chat the Government had rendered the South Australian experts' work nugatory by limiting the enquiry to the immediate cm c of the accident, and affirms that nal discovery has been baulked. The Post continues : " Such extraordinary pains have been taktn to narrow the e: quiry to the actual settle of tha accident that added strength is civen to statements that point to a growing form of tyranny within the railway department that must be subversive of discipline and, if unchecked, w'll prove a source of danger to the travelling public." The paper under notice more than hints that the wishes of the high professional officers of the rail«ay service are set aside to placate the Union that the whole department is in tli-.' grasp of the. Union and that men of the right political colour can obtain employment tin rein, while mil who are not known to be subservient henchmen of the Government, but who have equal capacity with those employed, do nob manage to get into the department. All this, of course, is very ancient history. It is precisely the spot upon which men who are really violent partisans neither of the Opposition nor of the Government ha e long placed their fingers. It may be peculiarly the mis oitime of this present Go vernmeut, or it may be peculiarly it's fault, but the fact undoubtedly remains that under its regime the spoils have always gone to the conquerors, and there has ever been woe to the vanquished. It. is all very well for us to shrug our shoulders when we hear of American Governmental jobbery, but a 3tate of things has long existed in New Zealand which would make the bosses of Tammany blush with uivy, or perhaps with shame. One of these days when a few Ministers and other alleged important people get crumpled up in a big railway accident, it will dawn upon the people of New Zealand that the sooner the railways are completely removed from Government control and given, as they are in New South Wales, to a non-political board, the better will it be for the lives and safety of Her Majesty's leiges in this " Greater Britain of the South." THE LAW OF LIBEL.

As you lire probably aware, Mr Carncross, M.H.K., a Southern journalist, ha? introduced a Libel Bill, the object of which ib to aßsimilate the libel law of New Zealand with that of England. It has been remarked in this connect : on that one of the greatest opponents of any alteration in the law of libel, as it at present exists in this country, is Mr Geo. Fisher, M.H R , hniself a journalist. There setms to be something peculiarly ungrateful in this opposition of Mr Fisher, consi lering that perhaps no politician on earth, and certainly none in New Zealand, is more beholden for whatever success, political or otherwise ho may have attained, to newspapers, than is the same George Fisher. For years the two Wellington newspapers were unani mous, and when the Evening Press existed the three Wellington newspapers, agreed on one point only .the detestation of Mr Fisher, and, as long as they continued to abuse him, Mr Fisher was returned for Wellington, and could have had probably any municipal office his heart desired. When, in an evil moment for him, they left him alone his power waned and his position politically and generally became mere ilian a trifle uncertain. Of course a large sized moral can be drawn from these statements, and your nadirs arc quite at liberty to draw that moral for themselves without extra charge. The average journalist also may with benefit read, matk, learn and inwardly digest the fact that, if a newspaper consistently abuses a man it will do him infinitely more good than harm.