West Coast Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1866.

West Coast Times, Issue 289, 27 August 1866, Page 2

West Coast Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1866.

We have hitherto refrained from more than an occasional and incidental notice of the letters which appear from time to time iii the columns oi' the Canterbury " Press*' from the Hokitika Own Correspondent of that journal. We vo done so for many reasons^ most of them of . a kindly nature. We did not desire to call attention too pointedly to the flagrant breach of official propriety committed by a gentleman who, holding an office in the public service here and receiving public wages, deliberately and systematically violated one of the most stringent of the conditions on which his tenure of office was bused, viz , the drisability of any member of the civil service to write politically in the public ! journals. So long as this gentleman indulged merely in a little resume of news, or 'eVen in a few spiteful inuendoe* in his Correspondence, and a few equally spiteful communications to the local press, it was not worth our while to take any notice of him — any more than of the spaniel that has always his tail ready to wag to his master, and his tongue ready to lick the hand that has a crumb to bestow. But this impunity from criticism, has at last begotten an insolence that requires to be checked. And we shall put the checu upon it without scruple and without reserve. The matter is altogether too great a breach of public propriety, as well as too gross and impudent a violation of the laws of the civil service, to he dealt with in any but a practical and outspoken tone*

We extract the following passage from the latest communication of Our Own Correspondent to the Christchurch " Press " {

Pfcce -hunters are not, I believe, noted for their patience or long-suffering— they are, on the contrary, irritable and snappish, like petted children, if they don't get what they want, immediately they begin to cry. One of our local papefs was at one time the foremost in leading an attack against Mr Moorhouse (in favor of a local man) ; subsequently it changed its opinion, and got up an ovation to greet his Honor with on the occasion of his second visit to Westlund, — it sat near him in a cohspicuous position at the banquet— it beard his Honor s-ay that possibly one of the members of Council for Westland might octupy a seat in his Executive— and felt repaid for the time and trouble expended' on the newly elected Chief Magistrate. But, weary of waiting for the portfolio, and iememberiug the old adage about promises &ttd pie- crusts, the paper began to think about the possibility of the bright future becoming suddenly darkened, and in an unlucky hour it turned round upon its benefactor and spat its poison at him. How it feels now may be better imagined than described. Immediately upon the hoels of an article abusing the continuation of autocratic power in Westland-," and the similarity of Messrs Moorhottse and Uealey, &c, &c, comes the news that Mr Moorhouse (whose voice, it was complained, had never been heard in the Assembly), had been the proposer of the motion which ejected the Stafford Ministry. The mortification of the periodical must be left for your readers to paint — my pen is unequal to the task.

The flagrant violation of the rules of the service committed by the writer of this paragraph, and its insufferable impertinence, arc only equalled by its reckless untruth. It is a falsehood which no one but an unscrupulous anonymous newspaper correspondent could be guilty of writing, that the West Coast Times in the article referred to, or in any other article, " complained, that Mr Moorhouse's voice had never been heard in 4he Assembly." And all the more contemptible a falsehood, because it is intended to impose a false version of facts upon a respectable newspaper on the other side, ignorant of the actual state of affairs here, and paying wages to its Own Correspondent for telling it the truth, and not the reverse. We give the ipsissima verba of the only passage referring to Mr Moorhouse in the Assembly, in the article which this most veracious and honorable gentleman professes to interpret, that the public on the other side may know for the future how to appreciate the truthfulness of the representations made of Westland affairs and Westland people, by this anonymous but not unknown calumniator. We wrote as follows :—: —

We regret to say that the records of the proceedings of the General Assembly contained in the Wellington papers, have not yet associated the name of Mr Moorhouse WITH ANY DISCUSSION ARISING UPON WeSTland affairs. It is true that the Assembly debates are most imperfectly reported. But we find Mr Fitzgerald pressing the Government as to their intentions with reference to the introduction of a declara-tory-law on the subject of the qualification of goldfields members ; and we find further a bill introduced to amend the law of registration — two &übjects which were forcibly brought under Mr Moorhouse's attention during his late visit. We had hoped that long before this a measure would have been carried through the Assembly, removing the difficulties that exist in the establishment of municipal institutions in Hokitika.

We have written throughout on the assumption that the author of the communication from which we have quoted, is one of the paid civil servants of the Government. According to common rumor, the " Own Correspondent" of the Canterbury " Press" is the Clerk to the' Commissioner. If that gentleman will disclaim the imputation, we will apologise to him for having made it. If not, the time has come to submit the question to the proper authorities — whether the regulations of the Government for the conduct of its subordinates are to be systematically set at deriance,

ftnd officials allowed to indulge their petty venom against the public out of the proceeds of whose taxation they -tire paid.