COURTESY TO THE CROWN.

Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 72, 22 September 1899, Page 4

COURTESY TO THE CROWN.

It is to be regretted that a pttblio body like tho Harbour Board has thought fit to show such scant courtesy to the representative of tho Crown in this colony. His Excellency, through his Secretary, mado tho very reasonable request that his carriage- should be alloweu on the wharf at all times, but tho Harbour Board has supported its Secretary in a grudging concession that " if tho state of the traffic on tho whurf should warrant it," His Excellency's carriages, "when driven by servants in distinctive uniforms," may "enter upon the whnrf without hindrance and without paying toll." No doubt the officers who slopped the carriage on the 25th ult. acted according to their instructions and no blame can attach to them, but it is somewhat anomalous lo have tho Govornor of the colony placed in such a position that he cannot send % carriage to moet his guests by an incoming boat without risk of having it stopped at tho entrance to the wharves. Tho dignity of his ollicc and tho credit of this colony for courtesy demanded that after tho incident referred to in tho correspondence published in another page, the Harbour Board should have freely 'recognised that in future tho Governor should enjoy what we cannot but believe to be a perfectly legitimate privilege. Demooracy and freedom tiro not necessarily synonymous with incivility and disrespect,^ The tone of Mr. Ferguson's first tetter does less credit to his judgment than to his appreciation of the spirit that actuates certain members of tho Harbour I3oard. References mado by a member of tho Board to tho cases of Lord Palmcrston and Loid Russell wero utterly irrelevant, Those two peers wero almost ordinary .subjects, wluxeas in this colony tho Earl of Hanfurly holds Vioe-Rcgal authority, and should receive the duferonce due to it. So long as wo livo undur monarchical institutions, good manners, if nothing t'lse, dunaud that tho loprescnlatives of those institutions should be treated less cavalierly than the Harbour Board has treated the Governor.