The Westport Times. AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 890, 21 November 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times. AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1871.

The Committee appointed to inquire into the management of the Telegraph Department and to consider the charges preferred against it, have furnished their report, which we are happy to state exculpates all who have been connected with the telegraph or who were specifically charged with misconduct. The particular accusations were four in number, throe arising out of alleged misappropriation of the telegrams forwarded to various opposition journals, and the fourth being a charge of ministerial misuse of the department. The first charge which is perhaps the one the particulars of which the public is best acquainted with, arose out of an alleged misappropriation of a Suez mail telegram forwarded to the " Otago Daily Times." The circumstances were certainly peculiar, and until explained away calculated to arouse a certain degree of suspicion as to the means by which certain journals could have become possessed of similar information. On the Gothenburg leaving Melbourne in September, 1870, the news had not been published, but was circulated shortly after her departure, and a message was forwarded lo Queenscliffe, arriving in time to catch the steamer Gothenburg bound for New Zealand. On that steamer arriving at the Bluff the news was forwarded as a matter of course to the " Otago Daily Times ;" but it is also alloged that the contents of the message were transmitted to Wellington to the Government, and that tho information was wrongfully conveyed by them to that portion of the press which supported them.

The Committee on investigating the matter concluded that the evidence adduced on the part of the principal accuser and of the department proved the charge to be without foundation. The Committee further expressed an opinion that the telegraph officers had acted with probity and impartiality, and that the information obtained by the Government on the occasion was derived from ordinary and proper sources. The second charge was one of having designedly detained a message forwarded to the Wellington " Evening Tost," so as to permit the " Independent to obtain an undue preference. This charge, says the Committee, is proved by evidence to be entirely unfounded. The third charge was one of having improperly appropriated a copy of Mr Stafford's speech at Timaru, reported by one of the " Otago Daily Times" staff, and transmitted by him to the office in Dunedin. In respect to this charge the committee is of opinion that "the Minister temporarily in charge of the department exceeded, as admitted by himself, his authority as Commissioner in obtaining a copy of Mr Stafford's speech. The Committee consider this a breach of rules which should not be repeated. The Committee would at the same time observe that no imputation rests on the Hon. Acting Commissioner in connection with this case, with respect to which an explanation has been given to and accepted by the House." The fourth charge of Ministerial misuse of the department resulted upon investigation in the discovery that a Minister had forwarded franked telegrams during the late elections which should have been paid for, and the Committee recommended that such telegrams should be treated as of a private character. The following are the conclusions arrived at by the Committee, founded upon the evidence taken : («) That the Telegraph Department has been fairly and honestly conducted and has been eminently worthy of public confidence. (b) That the accusations have been founded entirely on misconceptions, and inference drawn from supposed occurrences which are proved not to have taken place. (c) That the principal accuser of the Grovernmaut and Telegraph Department (Mr Barton ) should have nned to use the press in reiterating the charges, even after evidence was in his possession which should have disabused his mind, shows in the opinion of the Committee, that his mind was warped by previous antagonism to the Commissioner of Telegraphs, and that while his accusations and beliefs, although by the peculiar circumstauces of the case they may have been justified in the first instance, were not justifiable after the evidence which explained away his misapprehensions was in his possession. Although absolved from the serious imputations cast upon the management of the department, it must be admitted that irregularities had existed which furnished plausible grounds for the exaggerated censure with which the department has been assailed. If Ministers will interest themselves in elections, a right which they are perfectly at liberty to exercise, they should be careful to do so in their capacity of private individuals alone. Small as the matter is, in this particular instance, it is a most unquestionable abuse of ministerial power if he make use of any public institution, over which he may happen to have the control, for party purposes ; and, trifling as the irregularity has been proved to be, we cannot but feel a lively satisfaction that au olfLial enquiry has been held. It will tend to show that the slightest abuse of authority is not likely to escape investigation ; and the good that has resulted from it in establishing the integrity of the department can scarcely be overestimated.