The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1888. PUBLIC PETITIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3034, 22 October 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1888. PUBLIC PETITIONS.

The reports oil' the public petitions presented to tlio.Houso of Representatives in the late session Lave just been.priuted at an approximate cost to the country of 123. The petitioners are in.many instances 'the 'camp followers of our Parliamentary Brigade, and are- many hundreds in number. The first impression which a perusal of the report' suggests is the broad fact that nine petitioners out of ten have not a leg to stand upon in submitting their grievances, and that in.many instances thoir prayer is what is recognised .in Colonial phraseology, as pure and linadultrated "oheek." A colonial will often expend twenty pounds in a fruitless quest for five on the same principle that ho will chase his horse for an hour in order to ride a distance which he could walk in ten minutes, This arises from what the Americans term " cussedness." At any rate,; many petitions in the list appear to be inspired by such an objectionable trait. With some, too, the memorial disease, is ohronio, : Moro .than: twenty years ago we recoiled an elderly citizen from' the Chatham Islands submitting a claim for compensation to tho New Zealand Parlia. meut. ily the record of 1888 we observe hois still petitioning, and twenty years/hence he may yet be button-holing members. This sort of petitioner never wears out, and his career as a hanper on to Parliament would furnish admirable material to a writer of Colonial fiction. In tho list of 1888 are {he:iianies of-a number of civil servants whoso services have been dispensed witl), and who by this time,' ho doubt/are in many instances engaged in more profitable employment than • tho Government service. With thia class of petitioners'sympathy is.due; but more thiui this'icannptbeexterided in-tho proseni circumstances of the Colony. Occasionally political fooling prompts a petition, and we find a characteristic example in one. from John Hogan, of the Lake country, who complained that ho had: been improperly struck, off an Electoral Roll arid prayed'to bo' reinstated; There are too numerous pctitio-as, we are sorry to cay, from' village settlers complaining of bad hrid, arid bad faith on the part of: those who put tliem there. These complaints, sad to say, appeal' to have been only top well founded,' Some of the petitions aro decidedly novel memorials. One man prays for tho removal of a judge of the Supreme Court, '.a sentiment which would be, no doubt, 1 cordially endorsed by half the criminals in the .Colony,, A|#er petitioner is.aji inmate of an asylum, aridprobably is not fclip only lunatic injhe : list,. The moral of the 'whole thing is/that petitions generally, are,' if hot - a jpeeies of; insanity,; a pronounced kind of foolishness. - The Parliamentary ,\(!omui|ttee whipb them have a series ofMbelswhich fit nineteen' out of twenty of them. ono Goromon label is"|hi| pefitiori;. shojld testes fo IhoGoyeiijmept for consideration,''" useful and intelligent |s •' tho Gonimittee has jiO to --'ni.aj^/'' ■ - ; tJiir'dV' ■ fomiuli which is fouftd w ;fpi}y is, '/tho committee cttnnoi i'fi^^ ; tjjo prayer-of the petitioner. '. K'JBjj'uilo evident that a man : who puts time or njoney a has not ft fair

the Asai&nibly be a- relief /-to :liis'|ek mga'aßil spftensliis anguish" under; a grievance, byall ferns- let uito'pray the'Legislatiire,aissohie;briotermed but if lie makes IHB-'vohture; hi the parliamentary lottevyVwith tho; same. expectation lie would have in .putting money into a fotalisatoiybe will-be disappointed.,; Tho relief granted on petitions is infinitesimal as compared with.tlie amount-applied for, and it brides 'ill,' for. the common- sense of New,Zealanders.:wben somauy. of them aro found to bo engaged in promoting and backing utterly useless petitions.