The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 960, 28 December 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1881.

The Engineer of the Masterton; High-, way Board is -happy iri being almost the only official in th'e-Wairarapa wlib can speak his mind without hindrance. It is refreshing to find some lone in these latter days who does not Hesitate to call a spade a spade, and who holds •himself aloof from all the trammels of red-tapeism,. The report published in another column is very entertaining. To one contractor is assigned a talent for muddling, and the characteristic dilatorinus of another is censured in a remarkably plain and outspoken man.nerc ..This.sort of thing, weiear, ;is too good to last, People are not yet ripe lor' having their failings proclaimed from the housetop, and are not by any gratified by. being held up to public criticism. Probably Mr Bremner will find, 88 many another, man before him has discovered, that it does not do to run a-muck even at contractors, and that the position of public flagellator is not worth keeping up. . It is hardly desirable that the officers of any local board -should ibandon the wholesome i'Tute of courteous expression which usually guides all official correspondence,,. One contractor may be,a muddler and another may be dilatory, ,'but the •temptation to call them by ; such terms should be -resisted. A public dfficercan-enforcethe conditions i.of any contract, and in that way keep : a ; reprehensible contractor un^te

a satisfactory manner, shall belectured, and though as a change weiiwelcorrio," thisjjttew/style coadministration we dp not thinlrits general 'adaption.,,would be attended with satisfacid^reklts.