The Bruce Herald. " Nemo me impune lacesset." TOKOMAIRIRO. MAY, 24, 1878.

Bruce Herald, Volume XI, Issue 1012, 24 May 1878, Page 5

The Bruce Herald. " Nemo me impune lacesset." TOKOMAIRIRO. MAY, 24, 1878.

Consequent upon Abolition, three Acts of Parliament were passed, of great importance to the various bodies throughout the country undertaking the task of local selfgovernment. One of these was the Counties Act, the others were the Rating and Regulation of Local Elections Acts. The Eating Act of all tbree affected most the localinstitutions of the country, making the procedures for levying and recovery of rates throughout the Colony sufficiently simple and uniform. It would naturally be supposed that, the persons most concerned in making themselves acquainted with this last Act, namely, members and secretaries of Road Boards, and similar institutions, would have taken the trouble to have informed themselves of the processes rendered necessary for the levying and , recovery of rates under it Yet day after day instances crop up of

persons plodding on under some proyin- • cial ordinance without enquiring where its provisions have been altered or repealed by the Rating Act. A case tin point happened in the Milton [Resident Magistrate's ' Court last Tuesday week, and was duly » reported in the Bruce Herald. The Clerk to the Crichton Board sued a number of alleged defaulting ratepayers. One , of them, Mr M'Laren, disputed the claim, and won his case on its merits. But he might have had the plaintiffs out of Court at once, since the Clerk to the Road Board admitted^to Mr Carew that "the for rewvlry of rates, prescribed by the i Rating^Act, had been altogether neglected; Fortunately for the' Secretary and the Road Board, no defence was made in the actions, exceptin the case of Mr M'LaREN, so that judgments went by default. It is fortunate also, that, as we may presume, the Crichton Road Board has already collected the greater portion of the year's rates, else it would be in a very unpleasant predicament as to recovering ifchem now. It will be well if the Uoad Board and its Secretary look to this matter, in^ future, and indeed other Road Boards" throughout the Colony may accept similar warning^ for it is to be feared that Crichton Road Board doesnot stand alone in its ignorance. / '„ »■:>

Tub .following paragraph appeared in jthe. Dunedin ' Evening Star,' of Tuesday last ;-r " We feel deeply indebted to the Bruce Hkrald for iho appropriation of the special cablegrams that appeared in our yesterday's issue, and for crediting them to Beuter." ' . la justice to ourselves, "we may make a few remarks in reference to the above. The Bruce Herald is a subscriber to the Press Agency, Reuter's agents in New Zealand. This entitles us to copy ReuterV and Press Agency telegrams published by daily papers, on the days that we do not issue. We are also enabled, as on Tuesday last, on our days of publication, to give Reuter'a telegrams of the preceding night which are telegraphed to us from Wellington. Thus the Bruce Herald takes care that on its days of publication, it shall not be outstripped by its Dunedin contemporaries. One. of these the 'Star' gets every now and again, .in addition to Ueuter's, what it is pleased to call a special telegram* It was a special telegram that to^k Plevna several months before Osman Pasha surrendered, and it was a special telegram that killed the Pope occasionally, whilst he was yet alive and well. The Dunedin ■? Star' has, unfortunately, a manner of arranging its literary and advertising matter best described by the Glasgow Bailie as "yera interesting but slightly disconnekit." Thus, one never knows where telegrams begin and advertisements end. It is quite possible, though the fact is not worth verification, that, owing to the " mixed" manner in which our peppery contemporary is made up, in taking out Reuter's telegrams from its columns on Monday last we took some precious special or another and attributed the same in the Bruce Herald to Reuter for which we humbly apologise to the Press Agency, who will not care — we are sure— to see occasional fiction run into their fact in: this way. After this explanation , we trust bur coijiemporary w ill be satisfied ; but, lest it may not' be, will it permit us to point but that it. is itself continually filling its colnmns by the ingenious process of " writing out with the scissors " what appears in other papers, without giving those papers credit for toe Information so acquirea, Moreover, to our own knowledge, a memberof its staff— acting as correspondent for upcountry papers— has coolly telegraphed Press Agency telegrams to those papers without the Press Agency receiving a penny in return. After this the less the ' Star ' says of publishing telegrams and attributing them to a wrong source the better.

A. good many of our readers will' remember the case of Mr Purdue, who, some two years ago, was dismieaed from the Otagu police Force. His case at the time excited Very great attention, and was fully commented on in the Bbtjce Herald. Since then Mr Purdue petitioned the House of Representatives, and the Committee of that House reported as follows : — ' ' The petitioner states that he was summarily dismissed from the Otago Police Force after twelve 'years' service. , He. prays that an inquiry be instituted into his case, which he has hitherto failed to obtain. T am directed to report that it appears from the evidence before the Committee the petitioner has been hardly dealt with in being summarily dismissed from the Police Force without an. inquiry into the circumstances which led to his dismissal. The Committee, therefore, recommend that a full inquiry be made by some competent and impartial peraon who is not connected with the , Police Force. The attention of the Government and the person making the inquiry is specially directed to the letter marked ' Confidential,',, and signed < W. G. Fox,' dated '7th February, 1876.' and the indorsement thereon, signed « T. K. Wbldon, 10th February, 1876 '— T. K»tLY, Chairman— lsth October 1877." This report was made on the 15th October, 1877, and yet not a single move towards an enquiry has been made. Yet in the case of Mackintosh and Campbell, the ranger, re deferred payment lands, lately "so much discussed at the Southland Waste Lands Board, an enjuiry was held at once. We may say now in reference to this affair of Mr Purdue's, that is only one out of many cases of hardship in connection with the New Zealand Police. His request, which the Committee of the House has supported, in reasonable enough on the face of it. He 1 only asks for a fair enquiry, confident that I such will do him' justice. An. enquiry he! . should have. • / /

1 At a meeting of the Milton Borough Council I on Wednesday evening a question was asked. • as to the correspondence with the Insurance , Agents re the Milton Volunteer Fire Brigade. , It seems the position of affairs is this. There ' are certain expenses in connection with all ' Volunteer Fire Brigades which it is unfair to - cast npon^the numbers, and which in other f places are cheerfully borne by the local

authorities and th? public, assisted by the Insurance Companies. The Milton Borough Council was quite content to bear its share of such expenses here, and the public have not been quite indifferent to the claims of the Brigade. But it was different with the Insurance Companies. The practical break-up of our local Brigade as a result is quite fresh in the minds of our readers. Now it seems that the Town Clerk wrote to the local agents on this matter, and got replies from two of them that the letters had been forwarded to the Duoedin Office with a recommendation that assistance should be given in the case of the Milton Brigade. The matter was to be seen into at one of ; the meet-, inga of Insurance Agents, Duuedin, wbich take place weekly, but though this happened. many' weeks ago, nothing has since been beard concerning it. Accordingly the Town Clerk has. been instructed to write direct to Dunedin. . v A strong effort is to be made ; to . resuscitate the Brigade, as to the", utility^ of which it would be quite superfluous, to say; anything Should this be done, without the aid of the^ Insurance Companies who are most interested in its existence the new Brigade should, make every effort to save' life and uninsured property, but; where a house is on fire and is known to be insured up to its full value, our advice to the Brigade would really; be " let it burn." Then, perhaps, the Insurance Com-; pauies would become more sensible and more liberal.