OUR FIRST JOB.

Press, Volume I, Issue 13, 17 August 1861, Page 3

OUR FIRST JOB.

Shall we have a public dinner ? Have we not signalised our first in every thing by eating and drinking, and shall our first job be undined and unsung ? Our first public meeting in the yet unfinished Mitre Hotel at Lyttelton—the arrival of our first steamer —our first elections— the first opening of our Provincial Council—the first drive over our mountain pass, —and numerous other firsts —all have been dined and toasted and be-gleed in the good old fashion; so if we have a spark of old Canterbury in us yet, let us banquet, and speechify, and self-glorify, and fill ourselves to the brim with fluid, which on such an occasion we might agree for the fun of it to call wine, and all to commemorate the laying the foundation stone, and turning the first sod of that grand old institution attached to every respectable government—Jobbing!! With the fortunate land buyers for president and for vice ; his Honor for the honoured guest, and the unfortunate land sellers to wait at table, and pick up the crumbs after grace with thankful hearts, though somewhat unfilled stomachs, surely the demonstration could not fail to be eminently successful. Let a few ladies be asked, and not quite crushed to death, let every one speak at once with mouth half full and bottle in hand ; let a hungry crowd of uninvited guests be provided outside the tent (for it must be in a tent) to enhance by grateful contrast the pleasures of those within, above all, let vociferous applause evidence the consent of the audience to sentiments no one has heard, and let the popularity of the speeches be witnessed by a determination that no one shall be heard to speak, and the entertainment will have been got up in accordance w r ith the latest fashon, and the most approved taste in our community.

There will be some discontented spirits present no doubt: for a job is, after all, like a lottery; all can buy a ticket of expectation, but few can draw a prize. Such grumblers cannot complain if they are not heard more than their betters; but if they could raise their voices they might perhaps be heard to say, that if any little pickings were to be given away, old friendships should not have been forgotton in new alliances ; that old services might have claimed a more grateful remembrance than they have received. My disappointed friends—you are unreasonable. Rome was not built in a day. Remember this is our first job. It is the little mountain rill, which supplied by the favouring showers of authority, and unfrozen and un dried by the nipping winds of responsibility will, let us hope, swell into a river broad and deep of uncontrolled and unchecked corruption. Is there not a railway in the making? and £300,000 to be

spent ? and are there not unnumbered miles oi railway north and south—main lines both —looming long and straight in the dimness of the future? and do not main lines breed little, branch lines by the litter? and are not all in the hands of our Railway King? and must not all the land be bought and all the arrangments made by contracts dexterously manipulated in private ; not publicly, heaven forbid—but, let us say, before the market price of things shall have been affected by the knowledge of the intentions of government? And can you not, my discontented friends—dismiss your gloomy forebodings and look joyfully forward to the hopeful and promising future? There are other diggings than gold, and railway diggings are not the worst.

We may joke about it by the hour but it is so far as we can learn a very sad fact, that for the first time in the history of our community a great job has been perpetrated. We only speak of the facts as we learn them on all hands. There ia indeed some doubt whether Messrs. McLean and Charlesworth bought the land for the railway at the instigation of the Superintendent. There is not the slightest imputation on these gentlemen, they had every right and it was only natural that they should have bought the land when told it was likely to turn out a good speculation. But how did they learn that this land was to become the scene of a railway ? We entirely agree with 'The Lyttelton Times' iv their moderate article of last week, that this fact requires explanation. And if we have mis-stated facts, we offer no apology—none is due from us; it is a shame and disgrace to the government and to the Province, that there should be any possibility for our making a mistake. If these transactions had been openly and creditably conducted—if the public had been fully acquainted with the circumstances, no rumours would have been floating about, and no mistakes would have been made.

The secrecy in which the whole transaction has boen shrouded is suspicious in itself. On the face of it a job has been perpetrated, that is how the matter appears to the public; and the onus lies on a government which has placed itself in such a questionable position to clear its character.

Mr. Moorhouse will defend himself by saying that had he publicly announced that the land was wanted for a railway the price would have risen. Has he then made such an excellent bargain ? Why, he has bought eighteen acres, we are told, for sixteen hundred pounds! An enormous price! Secrecy has raised instead of lowering the price. The original proprietors would have sold the land to the Government cheaper than the land jobbers have done. Secrecy has enabled two speculators to deprive the original proprietors of the advantage to which they were entitled by their land being wanted for a railway.

But it is not only a case of jobbing for a lawful end but it is jobbing for an unlawful end. The whole idea of this branch line is in Mr. Moorhouse's head. He has concealed it from the Provincial Council: The press has never been informed of it; the people have not approved of it. Imagine the case of a director of a railway in England taking the money of the shareholders and spending it in a branch line of his own imagining. That is precisely a similar case. We venture to assert that such a man would be in a court of law in a week, defending himself for misappropriating monies entrusted to his charge. And we venture to warn those guilty of this act that they will be in a similar condition ; that the payments for this branch line will, every one, have to be accounted for in the Supreme Court. The contractors are new !to this Colony. Dr. Back is new to the duties of Treasurer. It is in the most friendly spirit we warn them that the whole construction of this branch line is unsanctioned by law, and that all iosues of money on account of it will in all probability be issues out of the private fortune of the enthusiastic official making the payment.