THE H.B TRIBUNE SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1924. STRINGS ARE PULLED.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIV, Issue 201, 2 August 1924, Page 4

THE H.B TRIBUNE SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1924. STRINGS ARE PULLED.

“By Minister’s direction have to advise you Marine Engineer will proceed Napier either Saturday or Monday to personally investigate harbour works proposals, so that he may prepare report for Minister’s information.”

This is the text of a telegram from the Secretary of Marine received yesterday (Friday) by the secretary of the Napier Harbour Board. It is, we believe, the very first intimation received by the Board from either the Minister of the Department that any such investigation was contemplated by the former. The question that at once suggests itself is as to why such an investigation should be thrust thus abruptly upon the Board without the least preliminary intimation of the intention to hold it. This exceptional celerity is certainly something quite novel in the annals of any Government Department, excepting perhaps that of Criminal Investigation. There will therefore be some considerable curiosity felt to ascertain what the peculiar motive is that has stirred the Minister of Marine to this so prompt action where the Napier Harbour Board is concerned. In the telegraphed report of his reply to the enquiry of the Member for Waipawa—himself perhaps inspired to put it—the sole explanation the Minister gives of his proposal to move in the matter is that he “has been reading carefully the newspaper articles and reports of the Board’s meeting.” Since when is it that Ministers of the Crown have been thus moved to respond so suddenly to what they may see in the newspapers ? Then, is it to be gathered that this particular Minister keeps himself posted in all the local press controversies that go on throughout the Dominion and takes like full and personal cognisance of and action upon them? Or are we to be forced to the much more natural conclusion that his attention has been drawn to them by someone having influence with him and desirous of prejudicing his mind in a particular direction 1 The answers to these questions may be left to the native intelligence of our readers, aided by such knowledge as they may have of the press agency that has been at work among them during the last few weeks—and of those behind it.

So far as the Board itself is concerned we can scarcely think that a majority of its members will sit down under the very distinct exhibition of gross discourtesy—to call it by no worse a name—that has been put upon them by the Minister of Marine. It is already a matter of great difficulty to secure men of standing to submit themselves for election to local bodies where really responsible work for the public is to be undertaken. It is not in the least likely that brusque treatment such as is being meted out by the Minister of Marine—or should it be Sub-marine ?—at the present time is likely to induce any better representation of the people on such bodies. More particularly does some sinister significance appear when we know that, if the Minister has really been reading the Napier papers as sedulously as he professes, he must have been aware that a motion was to come before the Board at its meeting, only a few days hence, inviting him to make just such an investigation as he has now so hurriedly precipitated without giving any time for preparing data to make it effective. Any sense of mere decency, let alone of the established and recognised amenities of public life, would have dictated delay until this motion had been disposed of. Bluntly put, the Minister has allowed himself to be led into putting a direct insult upon the Napier Harbour Board, and through it upon all public bodies of similar constitution in the Dominion. That his mind has been poisoned in advance on a subject to whose consideration it should have been brought clear of all preconceived notions cannot be doubted. It behoves the Board, on its part, also to make thorough investigation—as to how and by whom this poison has been injected, and it may be quite a shrewd guess to suggest that its first enquiries should be directed among its own members. This is due no more to the Board itself than it is to the public that it represents and that wants light thrown on a situation that at present has a very ugly aspect. If the Board, as a board, allows the incident to pass unheeded, then it can scarcely expect the public to maintain confidence in it. What are wanted are not street-corner whisperings and unauthentic veiled hints from the press, but a full discovery and disclosure of all the circumstances. Let us all know to whom we are indebted for the Minister’s so unprecedented action, and then we shall be able to place the true construction upon it. The matters at issue are of a great deal too big concern to the community to leave things as they are and the public in the dark as to the true inwardness of what is doing. Public interests cannot be entirely sacrificed to private reputations, no matter whose they are.