NOT DONE WITH YET.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 170, 17 July 1888, Page 2

NOT DONE WITH YET.

The J Battery affair, of which so much was heard a short time back, has again cropped up, though it has assumed a different phase. The trouble having subsided, to leave the matter as it stands, there is a want of finality about the thing which so far the enquiry has not completely settled. In another issue a letter from Captain Boylan to the Defence Department is published, together with the reply thereto. It is evident from these that that gentleman has not yet been informed as to the result, which at the very least it might have been expected would have bean done in the natural order of things. Admitting that he is no longer in actual military service, it must be remembered that Captain Boylan was, on those grounds, not bound to attend the enquiry, and having dona so he is in all fairness entitled to be informed as to the result, whether that information was given privately or publicly. On the other hand, the reticence miy be due to a delicacy of feeling on the part of the Major Commanding the district, He has, we assume, the facts in his possession, which he is quite at liberty at any rate to communicate to those on parade. This he has not done, nor has the result in any way been made known. If this is the outcome of any delicacy on Major Porter's part wo are inclined to the belief that it would be better to make the thing clear at once, no matter whether or not It may be against Captain Boylan. However, there we suppose the matter rests. The public must take it for granted that an impartial enquiry has been held, and a fair decision come to. Still, though it might be far better were the thing made public and finally settled, it does not necessarily devolve upon Major Porter to do so—he might even ho wrong in doing it, excepting to the men on parade. It is the Defence Department that is responsible in the matter. So far as the Major Commanding is concerned Mr Boylan (though still an honorary Captain) is now a private individual, and therefore beyond the scope of the Commanding Officer 1 but in common courtesy the Defence Department might have communicated its decision to Captain Boylan.