FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 111, 11 May 1940, Page 9

FIFTY YEARS AGO

ITEMS FROM THE "POST"

THE TOLLGATE QUESTION

"The summary and conclusive manner in which the Court of Appeal yesterday dealt with the tollgate question is exceedingly satisfactory," remarked "The Post" of this date fifty years ago. "The Hutt County Council was shown not to have a leg to* stand upon in its impudent attempt to erect i tollbars in defiance of the proclamation of the Borough of Onslow. The Judges did not even call on the counsel for the objector to reply to the arguments advanced by counsel on the other side in support of the County Council's alleged right. We have from the very first maintained that =the action of the County Council was plainly ultra vires, and now the Court of Appeal has unhesitatingly affirmed it to be so. The judgment at once disposes of the existence of a tollgate this side' of Ngahauranga or on the Naghauranga Road —a most satisfactory conclusion. Indirectly, the judgment also has an important bearing on some of the side issues which have arisen in connection with the erection of .these tollbars. They are pronounced by the highest judicial authority to have been illegal obstructions, and as such it was within the legal rights of those entitled to the free use of the highway to remove them. The whole of the hysterical ravings about mob law, danger to the Constitution, and similar stuff indulged in by certain people in relation to the Ngahauranga 'riots', are thus deprived t»f all foundation. It has yet to be proved that any unnecessary violence . was used in the removal of the illegal obstructions, and if there was not, then the Hutt County Council was itself the sole i offender against the law. The most unsatisfactory feature of the whole affair is that by stupid obstinacy the Hutt County Council has thrown away some hundreds of pounds. Whether the. expenditure incurred in the commission of illegal acts can lawfully be charged against the revenue of the County remains to be seen. The ratepayers will certainly object to paying it unless obliged to, and the question of who is responsible will probably engage the attention of the AuditorGeneral, if it does not of a Court of Law." CHARITABLE AID SCANDAL. "When the Hon. Mr. Hislop, after passing through the fire of an election, was presumed to be purified by the ordeal, and was welcomed back to the Cabinet, it was announced that he would take the administration of Charitable Aid under his own immediate Ministerial supervision. There were a good many people inclined to be sceptical whether Charitable Aid administration would be much improved in this manner, and these doubts would seem to have received confirmation in the scandal which has just taken place in Auckland, where a lot of imbecile old people have been bandied about from one charitable institution to another until, after finding a temporary rest in the police cells and puzzling the Resident Magistrate as to what he was to do with them, they have at last found refuge under the protection of the Salvation Army. A more. thoroughly disgraceful episode has not occurred inihe whole history of Charitable Aid f^inistrailonW although scandals in connection therewith have been neither few nor slight. There must be an utter absence of proper supervision in the Department, or such an occurrence as is reported from Auckland could not have taken place, and the responsibility must be held to i attach to the Minister who is specially charged with the administration of this branch of the Public Service. We hope that when Parliament meets he will be called to a strict account for what has happened." GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS. "Whether from premonition of their coming doom or some other cause, Ministers are showing great energy in the distribution of their patronage. They are evidently determined to leave as few good things as possible at .the disposal of their successors. Indeed, they have gone so far as to promise a seat on the Supreme Court Bench three years in advance, and in direct defiance of the law. Within the last two or three days they have made as many : appointments of heads of Departments, .at salaries of the highest class. Those thus favoured are those fortunate beings who, for some reason not disclosed to '! the profane world and strictly confined to the select upper circles of politics, .must be provided for at the public expense, no matter who goes to the wall. We are not prepared to say that all these appointments are unnecessary, but we sincerely hope that in making them a little more discretion will be 'exercised than has been displayed in some recent appointments. There are gentlemen who possess every qualification, and who have strong claims on the gratitude o* the colony, which have hitherto been shamefully ignored. We should be glad to find Ministers recognising these -. claims, by making reparation for. past ingratitude in these appointments, which are probably. the last1 good things they will have to give away." SELLING THE RAILWAYS. s "The well-preserved specimen of the antique who at present represents Wallace —Dr. Hodgkinson—has been addressing his constituents, and the main -portion of his speech was an advocacy of the sale of the railways. He fails to perceive, however, that if the railways passed out of the hands of the State into those of a foreign syndicate, not only would the drain of capital be continued, but it would be increased. There would be no real relief in the colony, and more money would have to be raised from the people and sent away. The burden would simply be transformed from one set of shoulders to another;" CREDIT TO HIS FAMILY. "There is in Russia a member of the'great Smith family, of whom the gentlemen who purvey cable news for these colonies are particularly fond. This particular member of the family spells his name 'Schmidt,' and whenever cable news senders are at a loss for an item they fall back on him as an unfailing resource. They are constantly killing him, bringing him to life again, and inflicting all sorts of dire punishment upon him. He seems to have as many lives as a cat. His only idiosyncrasy seems to be that he prefers German coin to patriotic sentiment and he accordingly sold plans of Russian fortifications to German officers Impartially and indiscriminately ' described in the cable news as an ornament of both the naval and military forces of the Tsar, his marvellous adventures excite awe and wonder First of all, we heard that when his" commercial transaction was discovered he was promptly shot. Under ordinary circumstances that should have been the end even of a Schmidt. But. since then he has been sent to cHf.pria twice shot, and again banShed? BuTnow the cable news .tells mthat he has merely been dismissed from the navy for the very Hibernian reason that his guilt has not been Soved. Truly Schmidt is a wonderful man, and a credit to his family."