“The Press” In 1864

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30497, 20 July 1964, Page 10

“The Press” In 1864

PROVINCIAL ENGINEER We are sorry to see an article in the Canterbury Standard-of yesterday attacking the Government fbr having appointed Mr Aiken to the office of Provincial Engineer at - a salary of a thousand ayear. It would have been as well had that journal reminded its readers that the appointment, though only now Gazetted, was made by the Government of which Mr Maude was the Secretary; and, as far as we remember, was made after a discussion in the Provincial Council. The indiddual Was not, appointed, but the commission was sent to England to select and send out a gentleman competent to hold the office of Chief Engineer of the province. It was not the present but the later Government which resolved that there was no engineer in the province to whom that important

post should be entrusted; and the appointment was virtually made when the order was sent home to make the selection in England. We shall not be accused of any undue favor towards the late Government, but we are bound to say that when Mr Dobson resigned the appointment of Provincial Engineer, preferring to devote himself to that of Resident Engineer of the Tunnel and ’ Railway, the late Government exercised a sound discretion in looking to England for a proper person to take the office. We say this, moreover, with the strongest disinclination to pass over local ability, and with a feeling that it is generally better to do what we can with those, who have settled amongst us, than to be ever attempting the acclimatisation of fresh specimens. However that may be, whatever blame is to be attached to the

proceeding, it belongs not to the present, but to the late Government. The Standard speaks of the salary of a thousand a-year-as one which is extravagant, and which they imply the Council, will unexpectedly be asked to vote. We believe the salary is already voted. It was certainly mentioned, and the Council were aware of the intention to send to England for a Chief Engineer. The salary is not a large, but a small one. Those who know anything at all of the salaries paid to that class of professional men, must be aware that engineers who have risen to' any ■ standing in their profession are accustomed to receive very considerably larger salaries than that paid to Mr Aiken. To offer a Smaller salary is simply to ask for a man who has proved himself incapable of rising to the higher rank in his profession.