A MINISTERIAL JOB.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 6347, 24 January 1889, Page 4

A MINISTERIAL JOB.

Under the heading of " Another Job, 1 the Wellington Post Beverely, and, as we think, most justly censures the Government for appointing Mr Seth Smith Chief Judge of the Native Land Court. Oar contemporary says : — " Mr H. Seth Smith Is one of those favored mortals who have to be provided for at the publio expense. He has a warm patron in Sir Frederick Whitaker, aud he is the nephew of a bishop, Hence his unexpected appoint-! ment, soon after Mb arrival in this colony, to the poMticn of Resident Magistrate and District Judge in Auckland, after occupying which positions for af brief period he was fortunate enough to obtain a length* eded leave of absence to vjlit Europe.

Since his return it has been a source of anxiety to find some employment for him, as' it was not deemed desirable that he should return to the Auckland Bench. Accordingly a Native Commission was improvised to review certain decisions of the Native Land Court, and Mr Smith was made a Commissioner. Now he 1b promoted over the heads of all the experienced Judges of the Court to the Chief Judgeship, a position for which he does mot possess a single special qualification, and his appointment to which is in direct defiance of the principle laid down In regard to such appointments by the I* 6^* latlve Council, by express resolution. Mr Smith doeß not speak Maori, and knows nothing of native manners or onatoms, Probably when In England recently, he would, If questioned regarding them, have replied, as the old joke has It, "Manners none, customs beaßtly." The Legislative Council very properly insisted that Judges of the Native Land Court should Bpeak the native language and be acquainted with native manners and customs. The Government, in the present appointment, as indeed in others of a recent date, haa treated the Coanoll and its opinions with utter contempt. It only remains now for the Government to carry out what la understood to be Its further intention of conferring Native Land Court Judgeships on Messrs Robert Trimble and T. W. Lewiß. Then it will in due course become the duty of Parliament, and the Legislative Council In particular, to call Ministers to account for misuse of their powers."