The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2305, 19 April 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1887.

From the very birth of the differences which now exist between the new Hospital District of Waikato ancl the districts of Auckland and Thames, the Government have manifested a strong bias in favour of the latter. This might have been unjust to the country, but it was done for a wise purpose from the Government's point of view, and if it has not had the desired effect, it ought to. The Stout-Vogel Cabinet have hitherto got their best support from the towns, ancl politics is too precarious a game to admit of their dropping the substance of city support to grasp at the shadow of rural popularity.

' This, however, is neither here nor there ; Ministers like private individuals have a perfect right to " scent that which pays the best, ancl go into it bald-headed" we suppose, and far be it from us to pick a quarrel with them on that account —so long, of course, as they are content to further their ends by honourable means ; not else. The Government may purloin our subsidies and pay them into the treasury of an alien body, because they can quote law on their behalf ; they may give cheap legal advice to these same alien bodies, because after all it costs nothing, and is probably worth little more; they may even give these bodies promises of support for all we care, because, if they resemble the promises of Governments as a general thiug, they can do no harm to us and will probably confer no blessing upon the recipients. All this, for the sake of arguinont, we will call fair and above-board : but we must draw a line right here, as our American kinsfolk say. We must enter a strong protest against any underhanded attempts made to frighten the local bodies of Waikato into compliance with the views of Sir Robert Stout or Sir Anybody Else. The County Councils of Waikato, Waipa, Raglan and Piako and the Borough of Hamilton are, as is well known, banded together to resist what every right-thinking man must regard as a monstrous imposition, and the Government, we say it boldly, have made an attempt, in one case at anyrate, to intimidiate the defendants into submission. A reference to our

report of Saturday's meeting of the Piako County Council will show what we mean. The county clerk said the Government Auditor, Mr Durrieu, had intimated to him that in the event of the council losiiag the action between them and the Thames Hospital Board, now pending, he should inquire closely into the case in order to assure himself that the council were justified in defending the action, and did not do so merely as a speculation. .No wonder the councillors were indignant ! A more insulting remark was never communicated to a public body by an officer of the Government before. . That a number of the most influential settlers

in the district should be subjected to such an indignity is simply monstrous. If local bodies are not to be guided by their own common sense, their instincts of fair play ancl justice, and, finally, by the of their legal advisers, but • are simply to be led by the nose by the political party in power, then, an the name of all that is reasonable, let them be abolished at once. We shall not be sorry to learn that we have done the Government an injustice; spite of its ugly look, the incident may be susceptible of an explanation which will exonerate the Premier, but if such should be the catfe, ancl it can be proved that !Mr Dumeu acted on his responsibility, the time has arrived for the appointment of £t new auditor in his place.

Noboby expected that the Minister for Public Works was going to give rus a hand in the attainment of railway reform, but neither, on the other hand, did anybody suppose that he was so utterly ignorant <of his business and ?o unfit for the position as his speech

at Kaiapoi on Friday night last proclaims him to be. That a man in Mr Jtiichardson's boots should make such a confession of incompetence is, even in this age of outspokenness, something quite out of the common. With the most charming naivete, he admits that he has already abandoned two schemes of his own, and he now comes forward with a third, which everybody in the world, except Mr Maxwell and the Minister himself, will at once condemn as quite absurd and utterly useless.

When he was elected, he tells us, he thought the railways should be placed in the hands of a board, similar to that in Victoria, and when he joined the Government he spoke very strongly in that direction, but on "further consideration and close study" he became convinced that the system would be very objectionable! We shall not insist upon the point that Mr Richardson ought to have considered and closely studied the question before, and not after, lie " spoke strongly" upon it, but proceed. Then he brought forward a bill providing for a board for the South Island, another for Auckland, leaving the balance to be bossed by the Minister or the General Manager at Wellington. This again was so strongly opposed that he did not press it, and as he has since discovered, after more consideration and more close study, that it would have been quite unworkable he isdoubtlessglad that he is possessed of so yielding a nature. But he has at length hit upon a real gem of a scheme, from which it is to be supposed no further consideration and no close study in the future can ever alienate his affections. He is now going to provide for the appointment of " boards of conciliation" all over the colony. These boards are to be composed of the representatives of Chambers of Commerce, Mayors of Boroughs and Chairmen of County Councils ; they are to be presided over by the Minister, the General Manager, or some other railway official, and their function is to hear all complaints as to rates, the conduct of any officer and so forth, and make such recommendations to Ministers as they shall think fit. This is perfect nonsense, and is scarcely worthy of a J moment's consideration. I

There are boards of conciliation, (though they are known by other names, and are in no wise connected with the Government) all over the colony at the present time, and they might as well whistle jigs to a milestone and expect it to clance as to expect the Minister of Public Works to pay the slightest heed to any of the thousand and one com plaints made to him in the course of a month.

The fact of the matter is, the Government clo not possess a railway policy of any sort or description and are only putting forward ';his nonsensical scheme to throw the public off the scent. Mr Richardson has the audacity to say that the proposals of Mr Vaile are now little heard of ! We can tell Mr Richardson that, whether time proves Mr Vaile's scheme to be sound or unsound, he will be remembered and honoured as a man who honestly tried to work his country good long after the present Minister of Public Works shall have faded away into the limbo of forgefcfulness ! .