Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1895. THE LAST WARD SCANDAL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5145, 2 October 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1895. THE LAST WARD SCANDAL.

Pool! Mr Wind seems to be always in trouble, though we admit that he has come out butter than usual from bin lujit .worry. The Post proclaimed that on a oei'titiii occasion an official iiktw gavo the Colonial Treasurer I ami Postninster-Goiieral a special privilege in forwarding private Kilograms, and Mr Barnsliaw put a question in tho House which com'{idled Mr Ward to take the matter up. .The fi.tatemont mado by the Josf and repeated 'by )[t gtrnsllaw is substantially correct, aiitl' \p jg t)iiit ,ou ,one occasion which jpsitiJSe.d sfotpe departure from ordinary mciice, jtjto Minister in question had initio uso pjf jthe TplpgraiihicDepartmeiit.butlthofiJfei'eji.c.t; that this use had been extended to

other occasions where it would have been improper, and that Ministers generally were not too particular in working points with the Department, was a more serious indictment against the Government. Perhaps the best answer to such ut charge would have been a simple admission of the ukase and of the limits within which it had been used, but not content with this, Mr Ward must bring in certificates from officers in hisown Department to show that he had been unjustly assailed. The evidence of these officers rather tends to fog an affair which otherwise might have been extremely clear and straightforward. Ollicia"l No. 1, called upon to clean the dirt off the coat of his chief, hands the brush to official No. 2 who, in his turn, does not seem to like the job, but has to go through with it, A Cabinet Minister ought not to recognise certificates of integrity from his subordinate officers, It seems to have come to this pass, that the statements made by certain Ministers now-a-days go for nothing unless they are corroborated by witnesses. It is of course to be regretted thatsome subordinate officer in Mr Ward's Department disclosed an instruction which was never intended to have been made public. The introduction of espionage into the Civil Service dates from the advent of the Liberal Party to power. The Service has become demoralised and Ministers suffer perhaps as much from their professed friends as from their avowed enemies. It is said that some Ministers have been wont to be arrogant ami overbearing in their treatment of members- of the Civil Service, and in tlio long run they, must pay a penalty for.failings of this description. In his defence, Mr Ward made a personal attack on the Kditor of the liraunij l'ost, which Mr ]<]. T. Gillon rebuts by an open and emphatic denial. Unless Mr Ward can prove the truth of the statement which he made in the House, and this Air Gillon challenges him to do, he has degraded his position as a Alinislor of the Crown by ut personal attack which ho cannot justify. Air Ward does not ivanfc to be saved from his political foes, but from his worst enemy—his own self!