The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1887. MINISTERIAL DEVICES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2545, 10 March 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1887. MINISTERIAL DEVICES.

The Wellington journal which is supposed to sit at the feet of that Ministerial Gamaliel, Sir Julius, understands that a considerable number of members of Parliament residing in the South Island have urged the Government not to call Parliament, together during April, as it will be very ineonvoniewt for them to attend earlier than May, by which lime all harvest, operations will have been completed. It will be, unexpected information to many to know'that a considerable number of South Island' members are wheat .growers, and that all of them who are grain cultivators are behindhand with their crops'; The Ministry will no 'doubt accept the situation, and while a bushel of wheat remains unharvested in the South Island Parliament will not be called together, Perhaps a months delay in meeting the House willnot be altogether unacceptable to Ministers who may in the interim do a .little harvesting which tliey have hitherto neglected. That somethjrjg js wrong in the neighborhood of the : Treasury the records of our late county meeting fairly indicate. The supplies to local bodies are. being suddenly and mysteriously cut off, and it would be very awkward while this is the case

for members to meet in Wellington and begin poking their inquisitive noses into the financial position. At. the-meeting to which we refer the fojtoyiri'g letter Med'Jan. -8, was,read from, ihe Treasury with respect to a' certain loan for £4255:— ' ' . lam to inform you'that all tho necessary steps appear to have now been taken by the County Council, with the exception of the confirmation ' of the special order making the special rate, and the . making of a declaration whioh it. has been desirable to request the Chairman of the County Council to make, that the County has ■ not exceeded • the amount of rating power it is bylaw allowed to exercise. A copy of this declaration will be sent for the Chairman's signature next week, and on condition of this being duly signed and the special order confirmed on the Bth proximo, your County will be entitled to the loan you have applied for, less LBS. The County are told with'two conditions fulfilled—mere matters of form—they are entitled tb their loan. On the strength of thia assurance the County complies with the conditions, and accepts contracts for the' expendiof loan money. Then the Government turns round and says you cannot have the money unless you fulfil' another condition not previously specified,- which , cannot possibly be complied with under.less than two months. In January the Government says the County is entitled to the money, in March it declares that the County is not entitled to it. It imposes a new condition for obtaining it which involves a delay of two months. We understand that this little game is being played with local bodies generally, and it is supposed to be a signal of distress on the part of the Government. We trust this is not the case because if it is so the Ministry are guilty of bad faith with local bodies. It would be absurd for a moment to suppose that the House would countenance conduct of this land, and if the Ministry find a technical difficulty in their way which prevents them from keeping their pledges towards the local bodies, they ought to call Parliament together at an earlier instead of a later date. What matter if a few bushels of corn belonging to bucolic M .H.R.'s remained ungathered if the honor of the Ministry be preserved. At the last meeting of the Borough Council, the Mayor tried the experiment of saving time by reading the correspondence himself instead of leaving the task to the more expert vocal organ of the Town Clerk. This effort to expedite business proved a disastrous failure, and some other method will have to bo adopted to bring within reasonable limits • the periodical meetings of the Council, which are now becoming a little long, : a little effusive, and a little discursive. At the late County Council meeting Mr J, Vile asked tho Council to alter the schedule under which he had taken a contract for a certain tollgate to enable him to recover certain tolls from Mr J. Macara, who was now legally exempt from paying the same, In other words, he invited the County to rob Petor to pay Paul. Crs McCardle and Hawkins reviewed the decision of the Resident Magistrate on the case as heard in the court, but as the Council is not a court of appeal this did not settle the difficulty. Cr Meredith suggested that Peter' should be heard on the question as well as Paul, and the Chairman boldly proposed that Petor and Paul should bo loft out of the question, and the point raised settled on its merits. The Council, like most public bodies, enjoy picking a personal bone, and did not listen to the wise advice of their chief. In conclusion, Cr McCardle tabled a notice of motion to the effect that Peter should be robbed to pay Paul. The broad principle at issue, apartfrom the personal aspect of the case seems to be this: Should a contractor who makes a miscalculation in his tender (of course against himself, because when it is the other way he gives himself the benefit of it as a matter of course) abide by the loss or should the! local body be responsible for it, If the latter is in any degree responsible, can it place the loss on the shoulders of a third party.

" Benevolence" is a leading item in the Wellington papers just now. The Evening Press yesterday published no less than twelve separate local paragraphs having reference to cases connected with the Benevolent Society. The new Act is producing a plentiful orop I Since it came into operation the poor have increased and multiplied exceedingly. Sir Julius' prophetic "leaps and bounds" have been verified, but somewhat in a wrong direction.