THE PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1879.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 3251, 17 January 1879, Page 2

THE PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1879.

Thi enquiry which is to be made by a Committee of the whole Council into the working of the survey and public works department of the County affords rather a curious commentaiy upon the amount and value of the supervision exercised by the late Council over its officers. It is a , strange thing that nearly two years should | have elapsed before any idea of an enquiry respecting the most important branch of the County service should have occurred. Not that there was not ample reason, for complaints of various kinds were continually being made in the various Ridings through the columns of the Press and otherwise, but no notice was taken of them. Possibly Councillors were themselves implicated in many of the charges, and it was hardly likely therefore that members of the Council who were in reality contractors under the Council would permit the public to pry too closely into the arcana of jobbery, and preferred to allow the brunt of everything to be borne by the Road Overseer, who in his turn has been made the subject of unfavourable comment upon evidence of a not very satisfactory character. Although the scope of the coming enquiry is ostensibly confined somewhat indefinitely to the " working" of the surveying and public works department, it is quite as much intended for the purpose of investigating and deciding upon any charges that may be laid against Mr Butler before the Committee, and in this respect we are satisfied it will utterly fail to effect any useful purpose. The most of the complaints that have from time to time been made, have been confined entirely to alleged favoritism, and arbitrary alteration and variation of specifications after contracts have been let, but these changes are so easily made, and yet so difficult of proof, that the Council would never be able to get at the bottom of the facts, if facts there were. A disappointed [ contractor is not generally very considerate in his views when he finds he has lost a lucrative job, and it is easy enough for him to say afterwards,: — " 0, if I had known that I could have substituted this kind of work for the other, or been allowed to do so and so, and leave things out, I would have taken the work for m ach less than it has been let for," and then to revenge himself by impurting corrupt collusion between the overseer and the contractor. But, although things of this kind have been said, we doubt very mnch if a single specific|complaint of the kind will be laid before the Committee ; and the same with other charges of a Bimilar character which have been freely bandied about, but no reliable evidence brought forward to support them. To entertain, and still further to invite, the preference of specific charges, and putting, as it were, the Road Overseer on his trial, is a mistake, and is a greater reproach to the Council than to the officer implicated, for the simple reasons that we doubt if any charges will be made, and therefore no defence to be made, and Mr Butler will recsive a sort of acquittal which will be no acquittal at all, whilst the Council from the Chairman downwards will be Convicted of giving some sort of credence

to accusations which, if the public affairs of the County had been closely looked after, the members should of their own knowledge to have known to be untrue. The only useful end which the Com- 1 mittee's enquiry can help to bring about is the more economical working of the Overseer's Department. That it has been most extravagantly worked the County ledger can show ; but in order that the Council may be better able to see what it is about, some information of a useful kind is required. The Committee should go back to the time when it first invited applications for the office of Road Overseer, and compare the offers made and that accepted, with what actually has been paid ; and in order to arrive at this there should be laid on the table a detailed return Bhowing the following items : — 1. The total amount of payments of all kinds to the Road Overseer, distinguishing salary, travelling allowances, extra clerical assistance^ forage, cost of stable, farriery, &c, since the commencement of his engagement. 2. A list showing the naraea of all contractors to the amount of over £50, specifying the nature of the contract, its original amount, and the amount in totil paid to such contractor on account of such contract for extras or allowances of any kind.

3. A list of contracts over LSO, on which deviations have been made by the overseer.

4. The amount paid for day labor and road inspection.

Now these and any other returns of a similar kind would give the Committee something to go upon, instead of blundering along in the dark investigating frivolous charges of no public importance* The business of the Council is now to cut down its expenses in every direction, and it has a good field to commence with in the Overseer's department.