THE GARBLED DOCUMENT.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1029, 8 May 1857, Page 2

THE GARBLED DOCUMENT.

It appears that the Superintendent does not attempt to deny having tampered with a report, officially transmitted by him to Council ; but attempts to divert attention from the fact, by recrimination upon the subordinate officer whose name was attached to the report. Mr. Cunningham, it is retorted, ought not to have permitted any alteration whatever in his report. Possibly not, in extreme strictness of consideration ; but that is an evasion of the question. The question is, what the Superintendent did ; not what his subordinate permitted him to do. - But the recrimination upon the Clerk of Works can be disposed of in a few words. It is the general duty of a subordinate officer to give way, as far his conscience will %llow him, to the wishes of his superior. Up to a certain point, he obeys ; otherwise the business of the office could not be carried on. If he be asked to go too far, it then becomes his duty to refuse, — to resign his office, perhaps his bread. But he is the sole judge as to how far he can go, consistently with right ; for every man is the keeper of his own conscience. In this instance, the Clerk of Works (another letter from whom will be found in our correspondence columns) did go a certain length in obedience to orders, but, as he informs us in his first communication, had he written a report according to what was desired '*it would have been a shameful one." He drew the line for himself, and kept within it. He afterwards did resign his office, finding that he could not retain j it consistently with self respect, although without I any reason to believe that he would be able to obtain employment elsewhere. The manner in which the Government seek to lay their own disj credit on the shoulders of a subordinate, is more than unfair ; it is cowardly. j As if charges of perjury and filching were not | sufficient to satisfy the most depraved appetite I for defamation, another charge, that of embezzle - ; ment, is raised in the same quarter. The victim in this case is Mr Joseph Osborne, late keeper of the Slaughter house. Mr. Osborne was but a very subordinate Officer in the employ of the late Government, but ■ character is as dear and as valuable to him as it

could be to the head of a department. We tike up the pen as readily for him as we would for the late Superintendent himself. Mr. Osborne, at the notorious election for the Suburbs, was asked to vote for Dr. Pollen. He was warned of the consequence of refusal, but he did refuse, and voted for the opposition candidate. Shortly afterwards he found himself dismissed from office. He spoke openly, and in fitting terms, of the treatment he hbd received, (at the hands, be it observed, of an ultra-demo-cratic Government) and was producing sa much effect, that it became necessary to cast * slur upon his testimony. It is a ccordingly made to appear that he had forwarded incomplete returns of the number of cattle slaughtered, and consequently, that he must have appropriated the balance of the fees. It is a fact that this man, with whom the late Government were perfectly well satisfied, cannot now walk through the town without observations of a very painful nature being addressed to him. Fortunately;' he has preserved the receipts, and is able to clear himself from the slightest shade of suspicion. We forbear, for the present, entering into farther details, as we hope that he will not relax in effort until he shall have extorted the fullest enquiry. It is a sad state of things, in the Auckland Province, calculated to make us -a nay-word among the rest — an example of wholesome warning. We hear much talk of liberalism, but so soon as any one gives offence to, or refuees to comply with tho dictates of the uneducated Government, the press in then* employ is let loose upon him. Write him down — invent — say any thing — throw dirt enough ; some of it will stick. , Can it be any longer matter of surprize that those who by education or by natural refinement qf mind are unfitted to cope with ruffianism, " should be gradually disappearing from the Province, glad to get away so soon as' circumstances permit them ? We believe, indeed, that the very object of this systematic invective is to turn them out, in order that freer room for action should be afforded to those upon whom their presence operated as a check. And thereanent we will adduce a parallel from the natural history of animals. The Badger inhabits a commodious and roomy earth, much coveted by the Fox. Unable to drive him out by force, the Fox resorts to another mode of procedure. He defiles the Badger's earth : the Badger, being a very cleanly animal, takes flight with ineffable disgust ; when the Foxr steps in, and quietly take his place.

— 0 We are glad to perceive that the General Government, in their circular to the Representatives, " intimating the further prorogation of the Assembly, have discarded the awkward abbreviation M. H. B. — Member of the House of Representatives, and substituted M. 6. A. — Member of - the General* Assembly. A Parliament man at* home is not addressed as M. H. C. — Member of the House of Commons, but simply as M. P. — Member of Parliament. In the "Southern Cross Almanack," of this year, the alteration had been already made.