The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 762, 21 June 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1877.

Equal and exact justice to all man, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political * * * * # Here shall the Presi the People's right maintain, Una wed by influence and unbribed by gain

Just as we expected would be the result of the new order in force, taking off the mounted orderlies from the duties hitherto performed by them of carrying the mail between Hamilton and Te Awamutu, and which came into effect on the Ist instant, the latter place is almost cut off from direct communication with the outer world. If there were any reason for the sudden discontinuance of this service, if it saved a single man to the Defence Force or, by releasing those in.it from that duty ? rendered their services available for other work needing to be done, we could understand the order. But it does nothing of the kind. The same men and horses are maintained, and the difference is simply between doing something and doing nothing. Evea if it has come to be considered that the carrying of mails is no part of the duty of the Defence Department, and that, whether the men are working or idling, a change must be made in the system, the present was nob the fitting season for making it. New arrangements for the performance of the Waikato Mail Services, will necessarily have to shortly be made when the railway to Newcastle shall have been opened and till then matters should have been left as they gwere. Between then and now is a gap which the Defence Department might well have left provided for in the way ib has been filled for a long time past. Yery serious inconvenience to one of the most important and largest settlements in the district, nay, to the entire district itself, has been thus occasioned, and that, too, for no beneficial purpose to the department, as we have shown. But the objection that one department should not be called upon to do the work of another, holds good neitheriu theory nor practice. Jn other instances, the service of mounted orderlies of the Armed Constabulary Force are made use off for the conveyance of mails; and the maintenance of efficiency and economy is, rightly or wrongly, supposed to be a cardinal feature in the administration of all public business. If it is not, if; should, at any rate, be so.' But neither efficiency nor economy in administration is obtained by cutting off altogether a necessary and useful public service, and if men and horses belonging to one department can be well, spared, the performance of the duty of another, their services, can be put to no better purpose, nor. the work done ,at less cost to' the public.The Hon the Defence Minister will shoftly be in Auckland, and as, doubtless, the matter will be represented to him in its proper light while there, we trust he will give due consideration to it,. "When the railway is opened, a new and comprehensive scheme of postal services for the, various Waikato settlements will, we understand, be provided, but, till. then, it is exceedingly desirable that old arrangements, we wish we could call them existing ones, should not be dispensed 'with. Without, for a moment, going the length to accept as a reason for this neglect that which someof our Te Awamutu settlers profess to believe to be the cause, that Te Awamutu has been treated "as Infractions child deserving of punishment, we do say, that of all places, it was, as a matter of good taste, the last which should have received an official slap" at the hand of the present Defence Minister. The probability is, in the multiplicity of business affairs pertaining to this department, Dr Pollen has had little time to consider the effect which the recall of the orderly services would have in the districts where they hitherto have been performed. That the matter may be unmistakably brought to his notice, we would suggest that a public meeting.at Te Awamutu be held as early as possible.

Sir Oracle has spoken. The Tauranga Bullfrog has blown itself out in its digest of the Native Lands Bill, and is bursting with self-im-portance. In a few concise, " ably written. " leading articles, so says the lauranga telegraphic correspondent of the ' Auckland Star,' it has disinvested the Bill of all unnecessary verbiage, and laid bare its " hollow sham and mockery." Arid who should so ably criticsie the able leaders of the 'Bay of Plenty Times,' as he who is at once Editor andthe Tauranga correspondent of What a nice little mutual'admiration association the editor ank correspondent, these two able writer's

rolled into one,; can work between them. We trust the telegrams sent to,the "'Star' are prepaid, or, at least, charged- as advertisements to the 'Bay of Plenty Times.' It is only fair that it were so. But there is a serious as well as a ludicrous side to the matter. I The article of the 'Bay of Plenty Times' falls harmless as an empty shell when hurled direct from its native mortar ; but. the #puff editorial" fired from the columns of the ' Star' carries mischief with it. -The Tauranga people know its j little eccentricities and its harmlessness, and wonder what on earth the editor of their local thunderer has taken that disagrees with his liver, but the readers qf the ' Star' take the correspondent's expression of opinion, not as the author's own, but as of some one in connection with the 'Star,' not the 'Times,' and give it a weight and importance it does not in itself possess. They see the Bill abused, gross charges made against it, and not waiting for proof, accept them as the criticism of the.' Star,' not of the writer himself of the "able" articles he alludes to. The last of these precious morceaux is from the ' Star ' of Tuesday, just to hand, and is as follows :

The " Bay of ,'Plenty Times" coneludeß its snmmary of Mr Whitaker's bill today. It says I :—"The vaunted removal of the strictures to open private purchase is a hollow sham and mockery. The Government keeps a tight hold of the lever of obstruction, and may raise or depress it to suit its friends and big land jobbers. The measure confers autocratic powers on a chosen few judges who hold office at the beck of the Government. It will continue to create and maintain a horde of .Native Office para* sites and land natives in the cunningly, devised mesh of legal restrictions, conditions, and limitations, as hopelessly as a fly in a spiders net." Further articles on the measure are promised.

Now, we are not going to cross swords with the ' Bay of Plenty Times,' We are simply going to give him the coup de grace by a thrust of the pen through' a gaping joint in his armour, and leave the public to judge from one exposure how little. reliance can be placed upon his statements generally. "The measure," he says, "confers autocratic powers on a chosen few judges who hold office at the beck of the Government." The "chosen few Judges," with two exceptions, have been sitting as such, however, since the Native Lands Act of 1865 came into operation, and the justice and loyalty of their,decisions have never yet been called in question, while the statement that they " hold office at the beck of the Government," is the purest and most transparent claptrap to mislead, and pander to the popular desire to have a fling at the powers that be, that was ever hit upon by an unscrupulous demagogue. The Judges of the Native Lands Court hold office by the same tenure as the Judges of the Supreme Court do, and their independence and integrity are as safely; hedged round in the one case as, in the other.