The Press. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1875.

Press, Volume XXIV, Issue 3223, 30 December 1875, Page 2

The Press. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1875.

It is with great pleasure that we hear of Mr Montgomery's success at Akaroa. We are glad of it on his account. Differing as we do in many respects politically, we should have been sorry to see him lose his seat in the House of Representatives. This is a time when the country needs the services of ite ablest citizens, and the House could ill afford to spare a member who has not only had experience in affairs, but who brings to the discharge of all his duties the integrity of purpose and single-minded desire for the public good, which so honorably distinguish Mr Montgomery. But we are glad of the result of the election for another reason. We accept it as a decisive rejection by the public of the unprovoked, unfounded, and scandalous charges that have been brought against the late Board of Education. The defeated candidate had thought fit, for some reason or other, to take up tuis as an electioneering cry. It obviously had nothing whatever to do with the business in hand. The conduct of educational affairs in Canterbury had no sort of connection with the election of a member for Akaroa in the Honee of Bepresentatives. Still, as Mr. Montgomery had always been a principal member of the Board.and for two years its Chairman, it seemed likelj that any discredit which could be thrown

on the Board would reflect on him, and gain votes for hie rival. Accordingly a violent attack on the I Board of Education became a prominent feature of the election. Mr. Montgomery's opponent worked it i against him most industriously. Hβ raked together all the old exploded storjesv about the extravagance and maladministration of the Board, - and served them up to the electors garnished with some additions of his own, The misdeeds of the Board of Education were his constant theme. He told the electors of the Peninsula how imprpvidently the Board were in the habit of rushing through their funds; 'how they scattered the education vote right and left with reckless disregard of economy or efficiency; how_ in nine months, with an appropriation of no less than £90,000, they over-spent that sum by £16,000, incurred a heap of liabilities, and~Btffi not satisfied, worried the Q-overnment to give them £8000 more ; how they had spent thousands in putting up buildings on land to which they bad no title; in short, how throughout the whole of their existence they had shown themselves utterly incompetent and untrustworthy as administrators of the public property. These statements were put forth with all the force that attached to them from the speaker's position —he being a member of the Provincial Council, intimately acquainted (as was to be supposed) with the facts and figures of the case; and professed to be confirmed by the Auditor's report and other official documents. Any attempt at denial was treated as an aggravation of the offence. He went on day after day repeating and justifying his assertions, and denouncing any contradiction as wilful falsehood.

But the candidate's zeal was greater than his judgment. He overshot his mark. Successful to a certain extent at first, he pushed hie tactics too far. The very virulence of his attacks on the Board roused up defenders. - Mr. Montgomery, the last chairman, and others, went fully into the question, and the truth was brought to light. It turned out that the sole foundation for all the charges brought against the Board were that on one occasion through an oversight in preparing the estimates, the requisite amount for teachers' salaries was understated by £3000; and that on another, an arrangement for the monthly payment of salaries, entered into with the knowledge and, approval of the Government, necessitated an advance of about £5000. The monstrous superstructure that had been raised on this narrow basis proved to be a heap of figments. The official documents appealed to in support of them, contradicted them point-blank. The Auditor's report showed that they were directly contrary to the fact. And the Auditor himself, from whose office the information was said to have been derived, denied that he ever supplied it, and bore witness to its entire inaccuracy.

When all this became known, there naturally followed a revulsion of public opinion. The electors began to feel that they had been imposed upon. Mr Montgomery's opponent had gone out of his way to fight the election on a particular ground, and on that very ground had proved to be altogether in the wrong. That his statements were erroneous from beginning to end was established beyond a shadow of doubt. ; Granting that they were made in good faith, they denoted an amount of ignorance discreditable to a member of the Provincial Council, whose duty it was to be accurately informed on all each matters ; and a readiness, no less discreditable, to adopt and give currency to any story that might serve the turn for the moment, without caring to ascertain whether *t was true or false. The consequences were what was.to be expected. In neither case could the author of them be deemed a fit and proper person to represent the constituency; and though at the outset his return had been reported secure, the election turned against him, and he was rejected by a considerable majority.

We repeat that we are heartily glad of this result. "Wfr trust, too, that the example set by the electors of the Peninsula will have its effect elsewhere. The cry against the alleged mismanagement of the Board of Education was not raised there alone- it was taken up with suspicious simultaneousness in other districts. We trust that it will everywhere meet with the same deception. The electors must understand that the statements they have heard about the Board's unauthorised expenditure are not true—that they are disproved by ■:. the Treasury books and by that final authority, the Provincial Auditor. And further, they must observe that any candidate who repeats them, and who ie a member of the Provincial Council, convicts himself of- ; being either so incompetent for public business as to be unable to understand a simple question of figures, or shamefully indifferent to his public duties, any ordinary attention to which would have saved him from so gross a blunder. With such a candidate the electors will know how to deal. Mr. Pilliett was foremost in this unfounded assault on the late Board of Education, and he has lost his election by it. Anyone who follows him in the same line will deserve, and we hope will meet, the same fate. .